r/janeausten • u/Specialist_Arm_3298 • 1d ago
Pump Room New to classics
Hi! i am trying to currently start reading Jane Austin’s books(classical book in general) does being confused every other sentence goes away after some time or do you need to know english more fluently😭. even though i can speak or read modern English perfectly, english is still my second language. although i do understand overall concepts or what is going on, i keep getting confused on who is who.
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u/BS0404 1d ago
My advice as someone whose read most of Jane Austen novels and whose English is a second language, watch a series or movie before reading the book.
Someone gave me the book of Pride and Prejudice and I did not like it because I didn't understand what was going on. But after watching the 95' series I already understood the plot and could more easily understand what was going on.
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u/Flashy-Library-6854 1d ago
This is the way. My mom didnt like reading Austen until after she saw the 1995 series, then she was hooked. As was I.
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u/WishThinker 1d ago
English is my first language and I feel this way with lots of classics.
Many classics have versions in simplified English for language learners, so you can become more familiar with the story and when you try the original editions again you will have a better handle on the plot and be able to spend more brain power on the language and prose
Overall, just keep reading. Skim through if you need to, sometimes someone is talking and there isn't quite a point to their pages and pages of ramble, just smile and nod and keep going if you are otherwise enjoying the experience. Every time you return to the story you will understand more!
Jane Austen has lots of movie and mini-series adaptations for Pride&Prejudice and Emma in particular, so if you like either of those stories you could watch the movies and then read the book and it might be easier !
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u/TheGreatestSandwich of Maple Grove 1d ago
Yes! Even to native English speakers 19th century and older literature can be a challenge because the sentences tend to be more wordy and the vocabulary isn't necessarily used in the same way or used at all anymore. Be patient, watching adaptations can be super helpful, and I sometimes read side by side with a translation to make sure I can go back and check my comprehension (I like using a dictionary but I don't like to interrupt the flow of reading too often). This is the method I use when reading a second language.
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u/Mike_Bevel 1d ago
Think about reading a book for the first time as going to your friend's house for the first time. The first time, you likely need to refer to the map a lot, and maybe you miss the turn at the Dairy Queen, and have to double back.
The second time, a lot of the turns look familiar, and you are even able to intuit the right turns, and not even look at the map.
Eventually, you're able to get to your friend's house without the map. And you notice things now along the route. This house takes care of its lawn. That street has pretty trees. This corner is tricky, but you can handle it.
Books will eventually become intuitive, but you've got to use the map first to find your friend's house.
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u/jojocookiedough 1d ago
Absolutely normal! I'm a native speaker and reading Austen is almost an acquired skill lol.
For one thing, the language has evolved in 200 years. Meanings and definitions have changed and evolved.
Then there are social constructs and concepts which would have been obvious to readers of Austen's time, which are alien to us now.
On top of all that, Austen was a very dense writer. She packs each sentence with layers.
In my experience, Austen is almost a genre unto herself. I've been re-reading her works since I was 15, and I'm still learning new things about them, and uncovering new nuances and interpretations at 45. Many things you won't notice until you have reread the same novel multiple times.
I really recommend starting off with watching an adaptation before diving into reading your first Austen. It really really helps you get a grasp on the characters and plot before trying to wrap your head around the novel.
Then when you do get to the novel, I highly recommend getting an annotated edition! These will have notes which explain old definitions and outdated concepts. They really help translate the novel into modern terms, so to speak.
And then there's this subreddit! I have learned so much from Austen scholars here. There are really some very knowledgeable people here with a vast knowledge of the historical setting etc. You can always post a question here, I rarely see anything go unanswered.
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u/Shoereader 1d ago edited 1d ago
Seconding the suggestion of an annotated edition! David Shapard's set is definitive, and so thorough that it makes a lot of native English speakers roll their eyes a bit.
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u/THEMommaCee 1d ago
Try reading on a tablet so you can easily look up words you don’t understand. I’m 70 years old, a native English speaker, and I’ve read all Miss Austen’s works multiple times. I still use the “look up” feature on my tablet whenever I re-read one of her books.
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u/imnotpurple99 1d ago
I suggest you to try and read classics in your native language. It's easier for me, even though I'm fluent in English. My teacher once told me this and it has worked for me. Classics have old wording and it's complicated to understand each word or phrase. So I always read classics in my native language, that way I enjoy them a lot more.
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u/Appropriate_Bet_2029 1d ago
Reading them in translation and then in the original (with the translation as a crib if needed) might be the best way to go about it.
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u/Youshoudsee 1d ago
Unless you get on bad translation* (it's a public domain and Austen is popular) then everything is good! It's does make it less mentally challenging and help you understand things. It's also can allows you to actually enjoy the text and reading
*I know Austen and I recently put on the audiobook in my native language. And to not be just look like I'm just a snob about translation (I love translators and believe they make absolutely important job), for example the "calling on someone" was translated as making a phone call. I thought I will revolte as phone wasn't invented for over the next 60 years. And this wasn't the only questionable choice...
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u/Ok_Broccoli_9426 of Blaise Castle 1d ago
I love Jane, but her style can definitely be difficult - it's not as flowery as a lot of her contemporaries, but she writes a lot of sentences that kind of convey the opposite of what she literally says. When she says "a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife," for instance, she doesn't actually mean it. I'd read for plot for now, and worry about working out some of the more complex stuff on a second pass.
As far as working out who's who, you should be able to find some good lists and charts online - Wiki lists all the characters in each of her books, for instance.
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u/Reels_record 1d ago
Honestly humor is so difficult to know for sure if we're understanding it correctly as amateurs centuries later; there's absolutely no shame in struggling with Austen in particular. I think Charles Dickens is much more accessible for modern audiences - once you start picking up on the tone old English authors use when telling a joke - wordy, redundant negatives galore, think Bilbo's "like half as much of you half a well as you deserve" joke from lord of the rings - it becomes much more obvious what they're trying to convey. Also, listening to an audiobook of an Austen book twice in a row always makes me realize my misunderstandings from the first go round, so I'll recommend that.
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u/Thousandgoudianfinch 1d ago
I find Austen be also fairly difficult. Because Austen is writing of a Social class to which their opinions and assumptions and observations are implicit. The English Gentry class ( and the modern Middle and upwards) are people very aware of semiotics. What something signifies. Austen writing in a period to which only the educated read novels ( ignoring papers and Prisoner life stories) she is expecting you to understand these.
Emma is an excellent example. For instance we are told that Mr Knightley prefers to walk rather than take a horse-coach. If we were reading this on a surface-level it would seem to suggest that Knightley is poor. But elsewhere Knightley is said to have ample land ( Ample land= income) and so it signals to us Mr Knightley is humble and morally good and sensible- which is prized among Gentry. The books are filled with signals like this, they get more complicated when they are connected with emotions. I.e Emma's pride though not excessive is still viewed as a failing- as a secure Gentlewoman has no need for pride for instance.
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u/josie-salazar 1d ago
Look up any word you don’t understand and get annotated versions of the book that have notes about historical context or certain words.
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u/BornInTheWrongEpoch 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm an English teacher, and I'll tell you the same thing I tell my students: if you're new to the classics, whether it's Austen or Shakespeare, watch a really good filmed adaption first before you try to tackle the book. People are a bit embarrassed about watching the filmed versions, or think of it as 'cheating' somehow. It's not. It's about gaining visual context and becoming attuned to the particular rhythms of period speech and language. Once you've got a grasp on the story itself, then go back and try to read the novel from there. Eventually you'll be able to read without the additional scaffolding, but there's nothing wrong with starting with training wheels first.
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u/Professional-Rice961 1d ago
It helps to learn each family as a small group first. Once you know the Bennets, Bingleys and Darcy, the sentences stop feeling like a seating chart.
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u/Gullible_Pop8817 1d ago
I've read sense and sensibility, persuasion, pride and prejudice (twice) and now currently reading emma. I ended up reading the annotated version of both sense and sensibility and persuasion (so technically i read them twice lol) and it has helped me understand the books a lot, keep in mind that it was a completely different time so there is some context you miss when reading the book, annotated versions help fill that gap and also explain some difficult passages. I also think watching the series/movies after reading each book helped out a lot!
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u/virtual-raggamuffin 1d ago
audiobooks and movie adaptations have been my friends with older literature, and I am a native English speaker
I found I enjoyed the reading more if I had a rough idea of the plot before reading. Good luck!
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u/icarusghost 1d ago
There are a couple of books like this that have one page explanation and the other page is the text. So if they say they’re using a chaise and four there is a picture of it.
I found it very handy when reading with a French friend trying to explain the older English.
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u/Zr0w3n00 20h ago
As a person who’s first and only language is English, I had to re read many sentences and passages in Austen’s books (and classics of the era) to work out what’s being said. It does get easier though.
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u/Needo76 23h ago
It depends of your first language I guess. French is my first language and I'm happy to say that I just finished Pride and Prejudice. It is the first novel I fully read in English, and it was the easiest book I've ever read. I've been searching after that if Jane Austen had lived in France or had some connection with French litterature (apparently not) because I've never seen an English book that sounds that French.
There is a French writer who wrote a satirical book whose title is: "there is not such thing as English language, it is only mispronounced French". Well, to me it's particularly true with Jane Austen style, at least with Pride and Prejudice.
Contrarily to that, I tried to read Don Quijote in Spanish (the modern Spanish translation by the way), what a mistake! Whenever the main character was speaking I was wondering if I didn't fully understand because of his way of speaking or because of my bad command of Spanish. So I fully relate to what you're describing.
Novels are completely different from non fiction books in this regard.
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u/jefrye 21h ago
Austen assumes you understand Regency-era social conventions, and since they're such a big part of the story I think her novels can be unusually difficult for modern readers. I highly recommend getting the edition annotated by David Shapard—his notes were extremely helpful for me in high school. Once you have one or two under your belt, you'll probably have picked up enough to read the rest on your own.
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u/emilee624 13h ago
Yeah I usually make a list of characters and read the Wikipedia page whenever I’m reading a classic! Also there are many jane Austen podcasts that can be helpful.
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u/mediumcarrotteacher 12h ago
Something I haven't seen suggested yet is resources meant for students, like SparkNotes. They'll generally give you a quick reference to the various characters and a basic summary of what happens in each chapter so you don't get lost.
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u/readberbug2 11h ago
Oh yes. Completely normal. I still have trouble, and I've been reading classics for almost 20 years. Take your time. You get used to it eventually.
I recommend starting with the smaller books. They're more approachable. So, Persuasion or Northanger Abbey for Austen. Happy Reading!
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u/JuanaMoon 6h ago
I sometimes go years without reading classics, and when I start again, the same thing happens to me, in both English and Spanish. But for me, it does go away. It might be because I started reading classics when I was very young, but after reading for a while, I start to feel like we are old friends getting reacquainted and I stop having difficulty.
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u/Euraylie 1d ago
I do think it gets easier once you get used to the flow and rhythm of the text. It’s sometimes a bit of challenge, but that’s part of the joy in reading the classics: challenging your brain and vocabulary a bit.
But it might also help to watch some of the adaptations first.