Grigg: This is my remote. And everything's on sensors.
Bernadette: Prudie? Oh, hi, Dean. Is Prudie running late?
Sylvia: What do you do on Hallowe'en?
Grigg: Oh, Hallowe'en is big. Hallowe'en is much, much bigger. You should come over for Hallowe'en. Wait.
Bernadette: Oh, that's terrible.
Grigg: I got inspired reading The Mysteries of Udolpho. You know, the book in Northanger Abbey that Catherine's obsessed with reading?
Sylvia: You read The Mysteries of Udolpho?
Jocelyn: Hey, Grigg, that color almost works.
Bernadette: When did you...
Sylvia: He read The Mysteries of Udolpho.
Allegra: Wait, that book they were reading in the book? That's a real book?
Grigg: Yeah, with the black veils and Laurentina's skeleton. Didn't you think that sounded great?
Allegra: Yeah, it sounded awesome.
Bernadette: Dean, I'm so sorry. Prudie must be devastated.
Dean: Prudie said to ask you. She's supposed to talk or something, about some book?
Prudie: Persuasion.
Dean: We don't know how long we're gonna be down in San Diego, so... She may have to cancel.
Bernadette: Tell her we'll save Persuasion for the end. It's better to do it last, anyway. It was Austen's final book.
Grigg: I thought Northanger Abbey was the final book.
Sylvia: Written first. Published last.
Grigg: That makes much more sense.
Bernadette: What happened with her?
Sylvia: Why?
Grigg: 'Cause it's a novel about novels. You know? You see Austen as the young writer, questioning herself. "Who's a heroine? What makes a good story? "Are novels a waste of time? Am I gonna write? What should I write about?"
Sylvia: I like that.
Jocelyn: That's actually very perceptive, Grigg.
Grigg: Thanks.
Bernadette: Prudie's mother died.
Allegra: Vow!
Jocelyn: What?
Grigg: Jesus.
Bernadette: She got into her car yesterday, this was in San Diego. She made a left coming out of a parking lot into oncoming traffic.
Grigg: Jesus.
Sylvia: Terrible.
Allegra: Were Prudie and her mom close?
Bernadette: Well, there was tension.
Jocelyn: What do we think? Is Persuasion too depressing to take on right now, with the dead mother and everything?
Sylvia: She doesn't die on the page.
Allegra: Even Sense and Sensibility, the dad dies.
Bernadette: What about Pride and Prejudice? I could use a little encounter in the woods with Mr. Darcy right now. Are we all up for a little romance?
Grigg: Ready.
妙语佳句，活学活用
1. send-up
也可以写成sendup，指“滑稽的仿作或嘲弄性的模仿”，比如：The absurd trial is, of course, a send-up of the Dublin courts. 荒谬的审判当然是对都柏林法庭的嘲弄性模仿。(New Yorker)
