I’m on a Jane Austen email loop, and a few weeks ago someone posted this great JA quiz from BBC Mastermind. Since I know many Regency fans are also Janeites like myself, I thought this might be a fun way to celebrate Friday! I’ll post answers in a couple of days. (Note: I’m a dedicated Janeite, and couldn’t answer all of them)
1) Which is JA’s heroine’s had lived in the world for 21 years with little to distress or vex her?
2) Name Mr. Rushworth’s country house.
3) Which card game did Mrs. Jennings arrange for old friends while Marianne awaited word from Willoughby.
4) What was the maiden name of Mrs. Norris, Mrs. Price, and Lady Bertram?
5) Which bone did little Charles dislocate allowing Anne to avoid meeting Captain Wentworth?
6) Which manufacturer made the mysterious piano sent to Jane Fairfax?
7) What was the name of Col. Brandon’s ward over whose seduction he fought a duel with Willoughby?
8) Which of JA”s heroine’s prefers cricket to books, particularly books of information?
9) Which play does Tom Bertram 5 times propose to put on before agreeing to Lover’s Vows?
10) Which material does Mr. Tilney claim to be an authority on?
11) What does Edward Ferrars say he takes more pleasure in than a watchtower?
12) To what does Sir Walter Elliot attribute Anne’s improved compexion, claiming it has done away with Mrs. Clay’s freckles?
13) At the Box Hill picnic, which 2 letters of the alphabet did Mr. Weston claim were the most perfect?
14) In which town did Mrs. Bennet’s sister Mrs. Phillips live?
15) In which frigate, captained by Frederick Wentworth, had Richard Musgrove served?
16) In what capacity did Wickham’s father serve old Mr. Darcy?
As my own bonus question–which JA heroine do you think you most resemble? (A long time ago, I took a quiz on this topic, too. It was lots of fun, but alas now I can’t find it! The quiz said I’m most like Marianne Dashwood. So watch out if I take it into my head to give a dramatic reading at the Beau Monde soiree next summer!)
You’re most like Marianne??? Uh oh, watch out, Amanda, because I suspect I am most like Elinor — which means any moment now I may start lecturing you and urging you to behave! 🙂
Cara
Amanda:
Thanks for posting this, only now I feel EVEN MORE DUMB than usual. I don’t think I know ANY of these. (And I think I am a lot like long-suffering, silent, ‘I’ll-just-sit-in-the-dark’ Anne Elliot.)
Yikes! I knew 1,5,6 and 13 and I have educated guesses for 6, 8 and 16. And I called myself a JA fan….
But I can do the bonus question! I’m another late bloomer like Anne Elliott.
This is humbling–I can answer three!
I remember doing that quiz and inexplicably was most like Anne Elliott. I don’t think the quiz allowed you to be like Mary Crawford, however.
Oh, what a fun, fun tea party we could have! Elinor, Marianne, and 2 Anne Elliots. I do think we would have to invite Mary Crawford, she was so witty and pragmatic. The first time I read Mansfield Park (when I was 12 or 13), I was deeply disappointed when she disappeared and that annoyingly passive-agressive Fannie Price prevailed. (But even though MP is my least favorite Austen, I hated and scorned the Rozema ‘reimagined’ MP movie that came out a few years ago. Go figure).
I guess in some ways I AM unfortunately like Marianne. I sometimes throw myself into things without thinking them through completely; I can be a “drama queen” when things don’t go my way; I’m crazy about poetry and music and dressing up. And I can be stupidly romantic in my dating life, even though I haven’t written a series of desperate, rambling letters to a guy since I was 15 and fought with my own Willoughby in the high school parking lot. Sigh. Marianne all over. Where the heck is my Colonel Brandon now???
Oh, I hated the Rozema “Mansfield Park” movie too! My feeling was that if she wanted to turn the good characters bad, the bad characters good, and totally alter the personalities of half of them, why didn’t she just make up her own story, and not piggyback on the Jane Austen name?
As for the novel — I always recall MP as being rather dreary, so the last time I reread it, I was surprised at how very funny it is! I think the large amount of (fairly broad, very effective) comedy is easily forgotten in all of Fanny’s misery.
And for the record, I did like Fanny (and never trusted Mary or Henry C), though I did wish Fanny stood up for herself more, and didn’t get sick from the sun quite so often! 🙂
Cara