Reading in bed is…
Helen Fielding reading Pride and Prejudice
Yummy! Sexy uniformed scoundrel vs. deeply feeling real man with hard exterior. Proposal, refusal, a letter; huge house, proposal, ah…(Plus lots of and lots of dancing!!!)
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy reading Bridget Jones’s Diary
Stimulating. Dashing scoundrel or man of oak with deep reserves, like English oak bookcase? No war – both survive. Bridget chooses one, chooses other. (Note to self: cut battles, have Natasha take up smoking? Find out: what are Christmas jumpers, big knickers?)
Jane Austen reading War and Peace
Bad for the eyes. Catch it later on the Drama Channel.
M J Lewis ©2016
Here is my entry to Friday Fiction. Thanks as always to our superb hard-working host Rochelle.
We’ve been treated to a BBC version of War and Peace here in the UK on Sunday nights (American actor Paul Dano fantastic as dithering idealist Pierre) and I’m clearly having withdrawal symptoms.
Enjoying Sandra Crook’s photo and running with the possibilities of time travel. Kind of, who would you invite to your dream bookclub: Helen Fielding (creator of Bridget Jones) for Pride and Prejudice; Tolstoy for Bridget Jones’s Diary and Jane Austen for everything else – except don’t forget to get out the best teacups and allow plenty of time to catch up with the gossip with Jane.
(And at the risk of this post rivaling War and Peace in its length, here is a further explanation for those bemused rather than amused.
The first part is Helen Fielding, author of Bridget Jones’s Diary, reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The second part is Leo Tolstoy reading Bridget Jones’s Diary, which is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice. The third part is Jane Austen not reading War and Peace – and who can blame her – by candlelight and written some fifty years after her death.
As an added treat watch out for the film version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which stars Lily James who happened to play Natasha in the BBC version of War and Peace.
If you have been, thanks for reading. MJL)
MJL Stories 
Cleverly done!
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Ever since Colin Firth was in both Pride and Prejudice then Bridget Jones my head has been very confused! Glad you enjoyed it!
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I must confess. I struggled to figure out what to make of this. Is it a compilation of favorite reads?
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Not sure if this travels any further than across the dinner table! Indeed favourite books (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Pride and Prejudice and War and Peace), although other media are available and most especially for the last of the three.
I would definitely recommend Bridget Jones’s Diary – the film with Renee Zellweger is funny, the book by Helen Fielding even more so. Definitely a good read in bed – you don’t even have to be a bibliophilia sufferer. (It is based on Pride and Prejudice but you don’t need to have read that.)
Thanks for visiting Russell. Now perhaps you could explain American politics for me…
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I understand the last “Jane Austen” piece but lost on the earlier books because I haven’t read them. But I get the concept and it’s very original and a unique take on the prompt.
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You’re very kind – this is obviously a little bit of a puzzle!
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Oh I so loved this! A very fun take on the prompt (especially for us avid readers…)
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A clear case of bibliophilia if ever there was one – and no known cure.
Although TV and film versions alleviate some of the symptoms. (Confession – I haven’t actually read War and Peace though there’s still time!)
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What a clever take.. And though I have only read Austen, I did get it.. Particularly loved Jane Austen reading War and Peace… It seems tad long I think..
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Thanks Bjorn! There’s been a lot in the newspapers here about how long it takes to read War and Peace – estimates range from a couple of weeks to a lifetime.
Interestingly its setting in time corresponds thereabouts to when Jane Austen was alive. Perhaps Natasha could have read a Jane Austen novel…
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Now I have to read war and peace. I must admit, I watched BJD and didnt like it, so I didn’t read the book. P&P on the other hand, and everything Austen, is read again and again material. I thought this story was a fun concept even though I didn’t get all of it.
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Thanks for your comments!
I was going to say the book of BJD is quite slight and fluffy but good fun (and better than the movie where Renee Z gamely tries to play an overweight British woman and they added a ridiculous ending), then my daughter told me it’s also made it into the Guardian newspaper top 100 modern classics. It does have a certain fresh quality – maybe because it grew out of a regular newspaper slot – it’s a bit like a blog before they were so popular! But it’s certainly not Jane Austen.
Good luck if you get around to reading War and Peace. I’ve heard it’s the huge number of characters and all their names that make it hard to read – nobody has just one name. That’s where watching it first is a definite advantage.
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That’s a bit of clever fun.
But Sunday nights is now The Night Manager – all is well!
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Thanks Patrick.
You’re right – didn’t catch The Night Manager, so thank goodness for i-player.
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I’ve only read Jane Austen but saw movies of the other two. I’d like to read “War and Peace” some day but may not make it to “Bridget Jones Diary”. Well done, 🙂 — Suzanne
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