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Elizabeth Bennet, the second eldest of five daughters whom Mrs. Bennet is anxious to dispose of in marriage, is the most intelligent and delightful of all Jane Austen's heroines. Her vitality, vivacity and wit, her hasty dismissal of superior Mr. Darcy-'the most disagreeable man in the world'-how he improves his manners and she changes her mind, are the central ingredients of Pride and Prejudice. It is Jane Austen's best-loved novel and through the depth and sparkle of its comedy we are encouraged to consider what balance of energy and order, playfulness and regulation constitutes real strength of character.
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By P. Barber (Houston, Texas)
Ahhh, the wonderful story we all love. For those of you looking for a carbon copy of the movie, beware. The original printed story contains many details and conversations the moviemakers didn't include. The movies are great but the book offers a more complete picture of the Bennet family. Yes, it's harder to get the rhythm of the dialogue in the book, but work for it! It's worth it.
By Eloi (Ely, NV USA)
There's not much point to reviewing a classic like P&P--I've read it 16 times and found more to admire each time. But I've always wondered about the "songs" (Chapter 6) that Lizzy performs before giving way to her dull sister Mary. Was she really singing? I guess not, since the subsequent refs are to the instrument. During the time of P&P's writing and for a few years thereafter the English Scarlatti cult was in full swing, so the CD "Scarlatti as chosen by Clementi" is worth while listening for hardcore JA authenticity fans. Clementi was associated with the Broadwood piano manufacturers and the album contains pieces chosen from Clementi's influential English edition of 1791. Emilia Fadini plays these pieces on an English c. 1800 repro piano with some fire--I can easily imagine Elizabeth wowing Darcy and the crowd with K 381 (track #3). Anyway, the recording gives some perspective.
By Dave_42 (Australia)
"Pride and Prejudice" is one of those novels which most people know the plot and the characters even if they haven't read the book. For myself, I had not read it in a long time, and I had also not seen any of the movies made using its plot, with the exception of the musical "Bride and Prejudice" a few years ago. I finally made time for it, and it was better than I had remembered. This was the second of Austen's novels to be published (published on January 28th, 1813), though the original novel (titled "First Impressions") was written between 1796 and 1797. There is no way to determine how much of the original novel remains and how much was rewritten, but clearly the two dealt on a larger scale with the some of the same themes.
The main character of the story is Elizabeth Bennet who lives with her parents and her four sisters in the fictional town of Meryton. Elizabeth is the second eldest of the sisters after Jane. Outside of the Bennets, there is a large cast of characters including the three Bingley's, brother and two sisters, Mr. Collins, The Darcy's, Lady Catherine and her daughter, Colonel Fitzwilliam, the Lucases, Mr. Wickham, and the Gardiner's who are Elizabeth's aunt and uncle. The novel is told in three volumes, the first covers the period at Meryton where most of the key characters meet for the first time, the second covers the period after Bingley leaves Meryton unexpectedly along with those who came with him, and covers the period up to Elizabeth's visit to Mr. Darcy's home know as Pemberley, and the last covers the visit to Pemberley right through to the marriages and beyond.
There are several plots running through the volumes. There is the relationship between Bingley and Jane, which Mr. Darcy tries to put an end to, along with the help of Mr. Bingley's sisters. There is Mr. Collins attempts to marry either Jane or Elizabeth, but ending up with Charlotte Lucas. There is the relationship between Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy as well as between their families. There is Lydia's scandalous running off in volume three. But by far the mail story line is the relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.
In volume one, Mr. Darcy arrives as the guest of Mr. Bingley. Mr. Darcy's prideful manner results in a negative first impression with Elizabeth whose pride is hurt by his attitude and she develops her own prejudice against Mr. Darcy as a result. Mr. Darcy becomes intrigued with Elizabeth, but her own negative impression of him is reinforced by stories told by Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy's silent attitude towards her which she takes as his looking down on her. Thus, first impressions play a big role in the story, though to be sure other first impressions, such as the first impression of Mr. Collins which is shared by nearly everyone are fairly accurate.
In volume two, their relationship develops. Mr. Darcy cannot ignore the feelings he has developed for Elizabeth and this results in three key events in this volume. One is Mr. Darcy's declaration of feelings to Elizabeth. The second is Elizabeth's stern rebuke of Mr. Darcy's feelings followed by an attack on his behavior towards the relationship between Jane and Mr. Bingley as well as Mr. Darcy's treatment of Mr. Wickham. This leads to the third key event, which is Mr. Darcy's letter to Elizabeth where he sets the matter straight about his actions. The second event results in Mr. Darcy writing the letter and changing his behavior, though we don't witness the latter until volume three. The third event is important as the reader is privy to Elizabeth's change in attitude resulting from what Mr. Darcy has told her.
In volume three, their relationship completes its change, as Elizabeth gets to know Mr. Darcy from where he lives, and by those who work for him, and she also learns about his character from actions he takes on behalf of her family, which he never means her to learn about. We also witness the change in Mr. Darcy's behavior, not only towards Jane, but towards her entire family. Of course, it is obvious that the two will end up together, but knowing the end does not spoil the journey.
There is good reason why this book is a classic and why it is still read and enjoyed today. The characters are believable and well rounded for the most part. There is humor, societal and family challenges, and moral lessons weaved together throughout the book. I can also recommend the Penguin Classics edition of this book, as it contains an introduction and notes by Vivien Jones, as well as an introduction written by Tony Tanner for an earlier edition of the book. The introductions are both interesting reading, and the notes are useful as well.
By Sage J. Nagai
I purchased and read Pride and Prejudice so that I would be able to understand Pride and Prejudice and Zombies before reading it. In other words, I wanted to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but in order to prepare I first purchased and read Pride and Prejudice.
Pride and Prejudice sucks. Basically, it is extremely boring, even for a character-driven story. I consider myself an open minded person and I have read and enjoyed some character driven stories such as Jane Eyre, Crime and Punishment, and The Great Gatsby. With all of those books I could tell why the books were classsic; they had well developed characters who interacted in a way that was either entertaining enough, or had sufficient underlying philosophical or social subtext, that a person could read these books with a sense of interest.
The problem with Pride and Prejudice is that it essentially seems to amount to a story about a fictionalized idealized version of herself as an intelligent somewhat socially unacceptable woman in the context of English upper class society who is able to tell people off in socially acceptable ways, be smarter than her sisters, and meet a grumpy, intelligent socially unacceptable man to marry. It is boring because it basically doesn't have any social commentary or philosophical suspect besides for "smart chix roxxorz" or perhaps "nerds for t3h win" and it is basically a self-referential story which continues ad nauseum. I cannot understand for a moment why Pride and Prejudice is considered a classic and not the literary equivalent of trashy internet fan fiction with a Mary Sue lead character. Actually, I recall reading somewhere that Charlotte Bronte basically panned Pride and Prejudice in a review as being boring as hell.
I would recommend reading Jane Eyre over Pride and Prejudice because even though Jane Eyre is essentially another self referential fantasy about being a slightly socially awkward smart woman in the context of English society there are actual physical events that happen in the story that can somewhat hold your interest and actual entertaining fleshed out characters besides for the main character, whereas I get the feeling that Pride and Prejudice is basically a gripe about how everyone else is so shallow. If you're going to do that at least be entertaining about it like in The Great Gatsby. Trying to finish off Pride and Prejudice just caused me a lot of stress and pain and I had to force myself to keep reading. And I've read a lot of things in my lifetime that would bore most people into depression and somnolence.
Actually my real recommendation for if you want a good piece of classic literature with developed characters, but you don't want to deal with the anemic pale flabby social dissatisfaction of a book like Pride and Prejudice, you should instead read something by Alexandre Dumas like The Count of Monte Cristo or The Three Musketeers. Those books are written in a convoluted classical style (read it in French for extra points!), they have real characters, they have character interaction, but they're also event-driven rather than exclusively character-driven; actual physical events, rather than conversations at dinner parties, drive the story lines. The lead characters actually do things like engage in hand to hand combat, pilfer fine wines, and manipulate international politics, whereas the people in Pride and Prejudice just bad mouth each other at a dinner table. (Jane Austen doesn't even tell us what they're eating and drinking; at least Alexandre Dumas tells us how his heroes infiltrated no-man's-land and were taking fire but had brought a picnic basket with food and wine from a specific region and were having lunch and making fun of the enemy from behind cover.) And given how busy modern life is, do you really want to spend hours of your precious time reading about pale anemic English people bad mouthing each other over dinner over ridiculous inconsequential things, and not about musketeers taking fire while making snarky comments and knocking back wine? I mean, seriously.
By M. Read (Denver, CO USA)
I feel fully unqualified to pass judgment on Jane Austen, it is true. But I thought I'd add my voice to the chorus of acclamation that has attended it for decades. Pride and Prejudice is my favorite book--a masterpiece because of its writing (difficult and archaic, but beautiful), its plot (excellently woven and fully believable), and its characters (in whom Austen has perfectly captured the tendencies and caprice of human nature). It is lovable, enthralling, candid, and resonating.
I don't like writing reviews that make the product sound flawless... except in this case, where I really believe it to be so.
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