Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
PLOT SYNOPSIS (from the Penguin Classics Amazon listing)
When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows us the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.
Age Range: 13+
Content Notice: Very vague allusions to inappropriate situations
THE BOTTOM LINE
There is a reason Jane Austin’s works are beloved; she’s a really good writer.
THOUGHTS
I tried this book mostly so that I could write a scathing review (my mother-in-law found the idea of leaving a scathing review for Pride and Prejudice quite amusing). Unfortunately, I will be unable to leave that review because, against all odds, I quite enjoyed this story. Superficially, the series of events which comprises the plot is quite dull. Far from the riveting, tooth-and-nail action I prefer, plot points in this story are mostly relegated to conversations in sitting rooms and events like shopping trips and balls. Regardless, I found myself more eager to finish this story than some action-oriented novels I read recently, and the reason is simple: the characters are unique, compelling, well-established, and well-developed. The positive and detrimental traits of characters are easily ascertained, and despite the number of characters of all levels of importance, few are relegated to mere caricature. The setting of the novel with its class system, time period, and different location is nearly entirely foreign to me, and the fact that I was able to easily appreciate the cultural nuances driving the stakes of the story speaks to the quality of Austen’s writing. Rather than relying on her readers’ experience and knowledge to understand the story, she organically includes enough cultural explanation and world building that someone removed from that time and place can still understand. I also found it much easier than expected to comprehend the language of the novel. Though Austen’s vocabulary is certainly larger than the average writer today and there are idioms and word usages which need some explanation, carefully constructed sentences make most of these unfamiliar turns of phrases clear enough. At the same time, vibrant descriptions and inexplicably gripping interactions between characters made for an engaging and easily digestible read. I quite enjoyed this book and rate it at 4.5 stars. Normally I would round down to the nearest star, but in this case, I think the genre not agreeing with my normal fare accounts neatly enough for the half-star rating, so in an effort to be completely fair, I will round up. This is a great book for anyone, but people who enjoy period fiction will certainly want to put it at the top of their reading list.
RANTS AND RAMBLES
NOTE: Though I strive to adequately support the opinions expressed in my reviews, they are still just opinions. If you like a book I hate, I’m happy for you. Additionally, while I regularly rant about mere irritants in a novel, something must be remarkably good to garner the same level of comment. This means my rants and rambles often skew more negative than I intend my review to be, so please refer to my overall star rating for my unified opinion on this book.
- SPOILERS (but this book is super old, so get over it): It is not an uncommon opinion to have that the book is better than an on-screen adaptation, and it is certainly warranted in this case. The various movies and mini-series created out of this story are generally very good, but the novel outshines them all by a mile and a half. It deals more fairly with the characters who screen versions of the story have a tendency to caricature. Mr. Collins is an example which springs to mind. He is often portrayed as a hopelessly dull and aggravatingly sycophantic individual in the screen versions of the story. While this is undeniably still the case in the book, his character is more understandable and even a little sympathetic. When Charlotte marries him, I always got the general idea from the movie and mini-series (that I saw; I know there are other versions) that the viewer is supposed to be on Elizabeth’s side when she feels sorry for Charlotte and (possibly) looks down on her a bit for settling for Mr. Collins. The book, on the other hand, takes a more nuanced view of the whole affair, and Austen uses it as an opportunity to explore the reality of people having different views of life and different goals. It is certainly true that Elizabeth could never be happily married Mr. Collins, but she does more or less accept that he might be the right fit for Charlotte, who is looking for something quite different in marriage than Elizabeth. These situations and interactions are just one way Austen deepens the members of her cast and gives them such unique personalities that they begin to feel more like real people than characters in a book.
- MORE SPOILERS: A misunderstanding which pushes the main characters apart is a massive trope in romance stories. Perhaps it existed before Austen, or perhaps she gave birth to it, but in either case, she is a master of this plot device. Unlike many instances of this trope where the misunderstanding would be cleared up in an instant if only the protagonists had better communications skills than those of a second grader – I’m looking at you, romcoms – the misunderstanding which stands between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy is agonizingly understandable. Not only this, but every aspect of the two main characters, and the plethora of side characters, points to this exact thing happening; it is an easy argument to make that it could not happen any other way. Consequently, rather than being frustrated and angry at the characters for their stupid choices and infantile actions, I was instead frustrated at the society and ashamed on behalf of the characters for their completely understandable flaws.