Bernadette: I really like Edmund in this movie. Have you seen it?
Academic woman: I love this movie.
Bernadette: Oh, I like it, but it's not Mansfield Park.It's more of an interpretation. Do you know the book?
Academic woman: Yes. And I happen to teach film.
Bernadette: Do you like this movie?
Prudie: No. Do you know it mixes up Fanny Price with the author of the book? Makes Sir Bertram some kind of slave owner.
Bernadette: Well, it means well. And a little Jane Austen's better than none at all.
Prudie: No. No. No. That is how I talk myself into everything. I'm married to a man who would cancel our trip to Paris for a basketball game, which is making me a fraud in front of my students. A French teacher who's never been to France?
Academic woman: The screenplay is outstanding.
Man: Excuse me.
Bernadette: I'd like to talk to you. Come with me. You seem to know a lot about Jane Austen.
Prudie: I do.
Bernadette: You know, Prudie, I've been married six times. You're always happy at first. It's how you feel at the end that counts. I've been thinking, I'd like to get married again, maybe just once more. My favorite was Ben Weinberg. And this is Ben. He produced Fred Astaire movies. Don't underestimate older men. We lived in a house in Beverly Hills that had a little pond and a bridge and goldfish. That's how I met my friend Jocelyn. Carlos.
Carlos: My pleasure.
Bernadette: Ben was her godfather. Her family's loaded.
Prudie: Who's Jocelyn again?
Bernadette: The one I wanna start the book club for. Lost her dog? Eat. So, book club. I can get Jocelyn and maybe Sylvia. Jocelyn put Sylvia and Daniel together in high school. They've been together ever since. Though Sylvia's gonna want Daniel in the book club, but I think it should be all women. Don't you? I mean, men, they pontificate and no one can get a word in edgewise.
Prudie: Well, I think if you...
Bernadette: And women won't butt in, but men, they keep monologuing. Yammer, yammer, yammer. And we keep listening, protecting their feelings.
Prudie: But if...
Bernadette: And men don't do book clubs. Women want to share, but men, they hoard what they read, if they crack open a book. Does your husband read?
Prudie: He reads stuff online.
Bernadette: You know, it's gonna be like extracting teeth to get Sylvia, because she has to read so much already. She works at the state library. But, oh! Hey, no. Okay. Now, this is brilliant. We'll only do books we've already read. Is that inspired?
Prudie: How do we know what books all of us have read?
Bernadette: Isn't it obvious? Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion. I'm leaving some... Sense and Sensibility. And Sense and Sensibility. It's been three years since I've read Sense and Sensibility. I have to pee. When I get back, hot water and lemon. And we still have to think of two more people. Six novels, six people. We'll each be responsible for one book. All Jane Austen, all the time! It's the perfect antidote.
Prudie: To what?
Bernadette: To life.
妙语佳句，活学活用
1. Mansfield Park
《曼斯菲尔德庄园》，Jane Austen 六部作品中的一本。
2. It's more of an interpretation.
指她们谈论的那部电影“更多是一种（对原著的）解释。”It’s more of… 这个表达可以拿来套用，比如：It’s more of sympathy. 更多是种同情。
3. talk into
这个片语的意思是“persuade 说服某人做某事”，比如：They talked me into going swimming with them. 他们劝我和他们一起去游泳。它的反义词就是 talk out of，比如： They tried to talk me out of going swimming. 他们试图劝我不要和他们一起去游泳。
4. Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was the American movie dancer of the 1930s and 1940s. Famed for his mixture of elegance and nice-guy charm, he was a popular romantic lead despite his lack of typical movie star good looks. His dance routines are a staple of movie highlight reels. He was often paired with dancing actress Ginger Rogers; their movies together included Flying Down to Rio (《飞往里约》1933), Top Hat (《大礼帽》1935), and Swing Time (《摇摆时光》1936). Astaire was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his non-dancing appearance in the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno（《摩天大楼失火记》）.
5. loaded
俚语，意思是“富有的”。
6. get a word in edgewise
这个片语也写作get a word in edgeways，意思是“插嘴，插一句话 insert oneself into a conversation or express one's opinion despite competition from other speakers”，我们来看个例子：So many people had questions for the lecturer that it was hard to get a word in edgewise. 这么多人都向演讲者提问，要插一句话可真难。Nancy loves to talk, and I couldn't get a word in edgeways. 南希喜欢说个没完，我一句话也插不上。
