Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice

I had meant to read this for some time now, because I enjoy the various "fantasy of manners" books that have come out in the past decade or so, such as Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint and Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stervermer's Sorcery and Cecelia. I felt I should read the acknowledged inspiration for these. I have to say that it was an uphill struggle for me. The early 19th-century writing style - where much is "told" rather than "shown" - didn't give me much pleasure, but I was actually somewhat prepared for it because Susanna Clarke did such an effective pastiche of it in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. However, the fact that the story is completely dependent on a series of misunderstandings drove me crazy. I kept wanting to reach into the book, grab the chief protagonists forcefully by their shoulders, and shake sense into them: "Just talk to each other, already!"

Elizabeth Bennett, the lively and intelligent second daughter of a bookish squire with a rather revolting, materialistic wife, meets the wealthy Mr. Darcy at a ball and quickly dismisses him as arrogant and unfeeling. During the course of a great many events and mishaps surrounding the social lives of Elizabeth and her four sisters - sweet eldest sister Jane, would-be bluestocking Mary, colorless and empty-headed Kitty, and spoiled, impulsive "baby" Lydia - she begins to discover that her first impressions are wrong, and realizes that she has made a terrible mistake in her original judgment. Meanwhile, Mr. Darcy, who has dismissed Elizabeth because of her vulgar relatives, begins to realize that she's a worthy person despite her unfortunate connections. The resolution of the situation between the two is the heart of the story.

( Read on - spoilers! )

Bleach, vols. 10-20 (Tite Kubo)

With the help of the semi-crazed, ultra-buxom rocketry expert Kukaku Shiba, teenaged novice Soul Reaper Ichigo Kurosaki and his motley crew arrive not-very-subtly in the Soul Reaper city on their quest to rescue Rukia Kuchiki, the Soul Reaper who inadvertently lost all her own powers to Ichigo in the first volume of the series. As you may recall, Rukia's actions in the living world have resulted in her being sentenced to death, and so the story becomes a race against the clock to rescue her.

The party is split up before they hit the ground, and these 11 volumes trace their assorted paths through the city as they attempt to find each other and rescue the young woman who became their friend during her sojourn in our world. Along the way, they win the grudging approval or dire enmity of various members of the Soul Reaper guard companies, and we learn more of the backstories of both the original party and their new acquaintances, as well as a lot about Soul Reaper society, training, and politics. Something is very rotten near the core of the Soul Society, and Rukia's situation is just one move of a sinister power game that some of its members are playing. Volume 20 wraps up the story arc with a dramatic showdown that involves just about all of the most interesting characters we've met thus far in the series.

( Read more ... with spoilers! )

I really had to do this, because I may be able to get hold of volume 21 this weekend, and I desperately wanted to be blogged up to date on at least one more series!