None
4 stars
I expected something deeper/monumental, having known nothing about the book before. But for such an old book it is well written and the characters and love story are cute ☺️
332 pages
English language
Published 2013
Jane’s Austen’s delightfully scathing satire on class, pride, and proper behavior is as beloved today as it was when first published in 1813. The long road that the quick-witted, sharp-tongued Elizabeth Bennet and the haughty Darcy travel from mutual disdain to unfulfilled longing and finally to love and marriage is beset with obstacles in the form of Elizabeth’s insufferable mother, irrepressible younger sister, and Darcy’s own secret pain.
In Pride and Prejudice, Austen has captured not only the frivolous sensibilities of early-nineteenth-century provincial England, but also the hearts and minds of anyone who has loved outside of social expectations and aspired to a happiness beyond mere propriety.
This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition™ includes a glossary and reader’s notes to help the modern reader content with Austen's language and characterization.
Source: back cover
I expected something deeper/monumental, having known nothing about the book before. But for such an old book it is well written and the characters and love story are cute ☺️
Pride And Prejudice is a difficult novel for me to review because, although this was my first reading of Austen's work, I have already encountered its essential storyline in televised adaptations and numerous other novels so I felt as though I was revisiting the book rather than coming to it fresh. I enjoyed the humour, especially Austen's partly-veiled observations on the predicament of women rendered useless without a husband and, of course, her wonderful characters. Austen had such a talent for observation and for just exaggerating foibles enough to make people such as Mrs Bennet and Lady Catherine ridiculous, but not unbelievable. Personally I wasn't convinced by Darcy's complete change of behaviour mid-book, but both he and Elizabeth have wonderfully sparkling conversations and spats with the great energy fairly leaping from the page. The repression of their social situation contrasts brilliantly with the obvious strength of their emotional attraction to …
Pride And Prejudice is a difficult novel for me to review because, although this was my first reading of Austen's work, I have already encountered its essential storyline in televised adaptations and numerous other novels so I felt as though I was revisiting the book rather than coming to it fresh. I enjoyed the humour, especially Austen's partly-veiled observations on the predicament of women rendered useless without a husband and, of course, her wonderful characters. Austen had such a talent for observation and for just exaggerating foibles enough to make people such as Mrs Bennet and Lady Catherine ridiculous, but not unbelievable. Personally I wasn't convinced by Darcy's complete change of behaviour mid-book, but both he and Elizabeth have wonderfully sparkling conversations and spats with the great energy fairly leaping from the page. The repression of their social situation contrasts brilliantly with the obvious strength of their emotional attraction to each other.
I was interested to learn from Ian Littlewood's introduction that Pride And Prejudice was pretty much an overnight success upon its publication, but that it took some sixteen years and at least one drastic rewrite to get to that stage. The book was refused on its first submission in the late 1700s, even though Austen would have paid for the printing herself! An example to authors everywhere of the importance of not giving up!