All Roads Lead to Austen Read Online Free Page A

passed away. It was both a polite routine and a way for him to gauge my level in Spanish.
    â€œYou have children?” he asked.
    â€œI’ve got nieces and nephews. That’s enough for me.”
    This earned me my first real smile from Luis, a confirmed bachelor in a child-loving land. “We don’t all need kids,” he nodded. When I explained about the Austen reading group, he looked more interested still.
    â€œWho’s in your group?”
    â€œTeachers from this school,” I explained. “Nora, Élida, Mercedes, and two other women.” At that point, I’d not yet met the other friends Nora had invited (or corralled?) to join. “Ani and Flor, I think.”
    â€œWhich Mercedes?” Luis pursued, his eyes narrowing. “The fat one?”
    Now, I knew one Mercedes at the school was bigger than the other but neither was fat. He maintained eye contact, unapologetic for his question, watchful for my response.
    I decided on a frontal assault. “What a question! She’s not fat. Don’t you like her?”
    A little smile wrinkled one side of his lips and he shifted tack. “I’d be very curious to know how your group goes with those women.”
    I got the distinct impression from his tone that he wasn’t so sure they’d say much of interest. Sure myself that they would , I considered inviting him to join us. I had extra copies of Orgullo y Prejuicio . No doubt he could wolf it down fast, and I would love to know what such a widely read man would think of Austen.
    Then my better judgment kicked in.
    Just like the physical ruins in back of the administrative building on the Parque Central, that school had an ugly pile of rubble behind the façade in the form of the male/female relations. Various female teachers had let me know on my first visit that they feel disrespected by their male colleagues, and salary inequities were a big issue.
    While I empathized, I wouldn’t allow gender politics to prevent me from working with a teacher who interested me, and Luis interested me. But I also couldn’t allow the Austen group to implode by inviting him and his incendiary jibes to join us. The ladies, I felt sure, would be outraged.
    â€œI’ve got an extra copy of the book,” I offered. I could discuss Austen with him, if he’d like, independent of the main group. “I brought a film version, too. Do you think they’d let us watch it here?”
    For a teacher who spends seven hours a day, five days a week across a desk from foreigners butchering his beautiful mother tongue, watching a film could be a welcome change. We were due for a coffee break anyway, so we made arrangements. Wednesday, any and all interested parties could join us in the main office of La Escuela to see Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice , dubbed into Spanish, with Keira Knightley as Lizzy Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy.
    As we resumed our conversation, refreshed with caffeine, Luis asked me about Austen and her novels. Lapsing in English was a serious no-no, but given the lack of subtlety in my Spanish, I quickly snarled up trying to show why Austen was worth discussing in Guatemala and elsewhere in Latin America. Not wanting to spoil Pride and Prejudice for him, I launched into a description of Emma .
    â€œEmma’s a rich girl, you see? And she’s a, a”—drat, “matchmaker” was not in my Spanish vocabulary—“a person who finds husbands and wives for other people to marry.” A simple statement can drag out endlessly as you pile up ten or twelve words you do know to substitute for the one you don’t . “She’s got a young friend, well, who’s not really a friend because she’s poor, but Emma wants to find a husband for her anyway, because that’s the way she is, and when she finds a man who can be her husband, a husband for the friend, that man falls in love with her instead. With