Hello everyone,

This is my first Group Read (but I have read NA before), and I don't think I'm going to have much time to post a lot, but being on a schedule like this and forcing myself to take notes (and hopefully have time to share them!) is wonderful. I hope to participate in many more.

Ahem, so, the novel.

I'm not sure if we're allowed to compare Group Read novels to other works or not, so someone smack me if I get too carried away here. But it seems to me that NA is much more similar in style to her early works (The Juvenilia) than it is to the other novels.

(I do admit, I don't remember the pub. date of NA; perhaps it was closer to The Juvenilia.)

Ex. 1 - Ch. 1: Her father was a clergyman, without being neglected, or poor, and a very respectable man, though his name was Richard

"though his name was Richard" So random! So quirky! So directly silly (whereas the humor in her other novels is less direct). Also, doesn't she mention something of a dislike for this name in her History of England, which has more of the "directly silly" quality to it?

Ex. 2 - Ch. 2: Under these unpromising auspices, the parting took place (emph. added)

"unpromising" referring to her mother's lack of worry that she will be abducted, her father's giving her only 10 guineas, her sister's not begging her to write

This phrase is a make-fun-of-sensibility type that Jane seems to use a lot in her shorter stories.

It is not my design or desire to compare tons of phrases from each novel; however, the spirit of the book really struck me; it has a kind of rambunctious and frolicking nature.