Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (Paperback, 2003, Barnes & Noble Classics)
Paperback, 376 pages
English language
Published July 16, 2003 by Barnes & Noble Classics.
'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.' Thus memorably begins Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, one of the world's most popular novels. Pride and Prejudice—Austen's own 'darling child'—tells the story of fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet, one of five sisters who must marry rich, as she confounds the arrogant, wealthy Mr. Darcy. What ensues is one of the most delightful and engrossingly readable courtships known to literature, written by a precocious Austen when she was just twenty-one years old.
Humorous and profound, and filled with highly entertaining dialogue, this witty comedy of manners dips and turns through drawing-rooms and plots to reach an immensely satisfying finale. In the words of Eudora Welty, Pride and Prejudice is as 'irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be.'
Carol Howard, educated at SUNY Purchase and Columbia …
'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.' Thus memorably begins Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, one of the world's most popular novels. Pride and Prejudice—Austen's own 'darling child'—tells the story of fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet, one of five sisters who must marry rich, as she confounds the arrogant, wealthy Mr. Darcy. What ensues is one of the most delightful and engrossingly readable courtships known to literature, written by a precocious Austen when she was just twenty-one years old.
Humorous and profound, and filled with highly entertaining dialogue, this witty comedy of manners dips and turns through drawing-rooms and plots to reach an immensely satisfying finale. In the words of Eudora Welty, Pride and Prejudice is as 'irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be.'
Carol Howard, educated at SUNY Purchase and Columbia University, where she received her Ph.D. in 1999, chairs the English Department and teaches in the Theater Department at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. She has published essays on early British and contemporary African-American women writers and has coedited two books on British writers (1996, 1997). Her primary scholarly interest is the literature of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. --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!
