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jasondangelo's review against another edition
4.0
*Everything is spoiled below, so be warned*
I haven’t read Pride & Prejudice since I was a grad student in the mid-90s, and it was fun to come back to Austen as a seasoned adult. Austen’s writing is always enjoyable, and what I learned this time around is that it reads pretty easily out loud as well. (I read the novel to my wife, Ann, each night before bed.)
Austen’s wry sense of humor is always a joy, and it’s easy to see why her books still resonate today. In many ways her books lay the foundation for the modern romantic comedy, creating its tropes and standards in a way I never appreciated before. (Of course, I say lay the foundation, but I don’t know what books she was inspired by, so there are likely a whole set of books that precede her, though I believe the popularity of her own books set us up for what we see today.)
Coming to the book as a 47-year-old in 2019, the age of Trump and a crushing disparity between the wealthy and the poor, made it difficult for me to take an uncomplicated pleasure in the trials and tribulations of the Bennet sisters. Hearing sympathy for someone who only has 300 pounds a year when you know that governesses at that time made only 30 pound a year got under my skin. And Elizabeth’s love affair with Pemberley is stronger than her affections for Darcy. Yes, I realize that part of the point is that women in this society were entirely dependent on marriage for their financial well-being and that Austen is critiquing and working within those restraints, but Austen never questions the social structure that so well benefits her and her characters. The concerns of money and reputation make for excellent dramatic constraints and define the stakes facing the characters, but I had a hard time buying into them at this point in my life, even for the sake of the narrative. The pearl-clutching surrounding Lydia’s running off with Wickham requires you as a reader to accept terms in order to share in the concern. The same goes for the Bennet girls losing ownership of Longbourne. Yeah, it’s painful to think of losing your family home, and yes, it’s a horrible system that can allow an estate to be entailed, but to worry about these women who have hundreds of pounds a year even without the estate when you know that working women in the class below them live off a fraction of that amount, it’s hard (or at least it was hard for me) to not let that willful suspension of disbelief sag and think these women need to not fear working for a living.
That said, I enjoy Austen’s writing immensely. The scene in which Elizabeth rejects Collins’s proposal of marriage is one of my favorite scenes in literature. Austen is an expert at mocking people, and I don’t think I ever appreciated fully how snarky and vicious she was. I also never noticed how relentlessly she pushes the plot forward in this novel. There could be Law and Order-style “donk donks” between the chapter breaks, especially in the first volume of this book. Austen is an expert at getting to her point and then moving to the next scene. Most impressively, she keeps at this pace while giving the impression of moving more leisurely.
Austen’s critique of Mr. Bennet struck me on this read through as well. The criticism of her mother is readily known and typically delighted in, but she has really harsh words for her father too who she criticizes for abdicating his role as moral contributor to the family. It feels like an oddly modern critique to say this loving father let his girls grow wild. But having just stated Emma, I expect that blaming the parents will be a regular part of Austen’s storytelling. That’s something I’ll be paying attention to going forward to see if some kind of analysis presents itself.
As a love story, I give the book lower marks than as an entertaining work of fiction. I have never found Darcy particularly inviting, and my opinion didn’t change on this read through. Elizabeth is bowled over by his moral rectitude once she realizes she had been treating him unjustly, but as she observes to Jane, the real point at which she fell in love with him was when she saw Pemberley. Now, the book makes it clear that that statement was a joke, but it feels like a true statement, especially as we see that as she wanders through Pemberley she marvels at the idea that all of this could be hers instead of merely being stops on a tourist’s travels. If Darcy’s prospects were grimmer, he would not have been a romantic interest let alone a romantic lead.
Austen seems skeptical of people who are socially adept because they are so good at winning favor. I’ll be looking to see if that holds true in her other novels as we re-read through them.
Regardless of the bumps and difficulties for me personally, I am glad I got to re-read the work and am looking forward to the remaining five.
I haven’t read Pride & Prejudice since I was a grad student in the mid-90s, and it was fun to come back to Austen as a seasoned adult. Austen’s writing is always enjoyable, and what I learned this time around is that it reads pretty easily out loud as well. (I read the novel to my wife, Ann, each night before bed.)
Austen’s wry sense of humor is always a joy, and it’s easy to see why her books still resonate today. In many ways her books lay the foundation for the modern romantic comedy, creating its tropes and standards in a way I never appreciated before. (Of course, I say lay the foundation, but I don’t know what books she was inspired by, so there are likely a whole set of books that precede her, though I believe the popularity of her own books set us up for what we see today.)
Coming to the book as a 47-year-old in 2019, the age of Trump and a crushing disparity between the wealthy and the poor, made it difficult for me to take an uncomplicated pleasure in the trials and tribulations of the Bennet sisters. Hearing sympathy for someone who only has 300 pounds a year when you know that governesses at that time made only 30 pound a year got under my skin. And Elizabeth’s love affair with Pemberley is stronger than her affections for Darcy. Yes, I realize that part of the point is that women in this society were entirely dependent on marriage for their financial well-being and that Austen is critiquing and working within those restraints, but Austen never questions the social structure that so well benefits her and her characters. The concerns of money and reputation make for excellent dramatic constraints and define the stakes facing the characters, but I had a hard time buying into them at this point in my life, even for the sake of the narrative. The pearl-clutching surrounding Lydia’s running off with Wickham requires you as a reader to accept terms in order to share in the concern. The same goes for the Bennet girls losing ownership of Longbourne. Yeah, it’s painful to think of losing your family home, and yes, it’s a horrible system that can allow an estate to be entailed, but to worry about these women who have hundreds of pounds a year even without the estate when you know that working women in the class below them live off a fraction of that amount, it’s hard (or at least it was hard for me) to not let that willful suspension of disbelief sag and think these women need to not fear working for a living.
That said, I enjoy Austen’s writing immensely. The scene in which Elizabeth rejects Collins’s proposal of marriage is one of my favorite scenes in literature. Austen is an expert at mocking people, and I don’t think I ever appreciated fully how snarky and vicious she was. I also never noticed how relentlessly she pushes the plot forward in this novel. There could be Law and Order-style “donk donks” between the chapter breaks, especially in the first volume of this book. Austen is an expert at getting to her point and then moving to the next scene. Most impressively, she keeps at this pace while giving the impression of moving more leisurely.
Austen’s critique of Mr. Bennet struck me on this read through as well. The criticism of her mother is readily known and typically delighted in, but she has really harsh words for her father too who she criticizes for abdicating his role as moral contributor to the family. It feels like an oddly modern critique to say this loving father let his girls grow wild. But having just stated Emma, I expect that blaming the parents will be a regular part of Austen’s storytelling. That’s something I’ll be paying attention to going forward to see if some kind of analysis presents itself.
As a love story, I give the book lower marks than as an entertaining work of fiction. I have never found Darcy particularly inviting, and my opinion didn’t change on this read through. Elizabeth is bowled over by his moral rectitude once she realizes she had been treating him unjustly, but as she observes to Jane, the real point at which she fell in love with him was when she saw Pemberley. Now, the book makes it clear that that statement was a joke, but it feels like a true statement, especially as we see that as she wanders through Pemberley she marvels at the idea that all of this could be hers instead of merely being stops on a tourist’s travels. If Darcy’s prospects were grimmer, he would not have been a romantic interest let alone a romantic lead.
Austen seems skeptical of people who are socially adept because they are so good at winning favor. I’ll be looking to see if that holds true in her other novels as we re-read through them.
Regardless of the bumps and difficulties for me personally, I am glad I got to re-read the work and am looking forward to the remaining five.
hannahbeereads's review against another edition
5.0
The core cast of Pride and Prejudice are some of my favorite literary characters of all time: Elizabeth, Jane, Darcy, and Bingley are each delightful in their own way.
serotiny11's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
inglesonreilly1's review against another edition
5.0
2/13/23 reread
“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew I had begun”
“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew I had begun”
fablesandwren's review against another edition
4.0
I am not a love-story lover. I actually have never read The Notebook (but I’m not against reading it) and I have never seen the movie (I kind of am against that).
My mother is obsessively in love with this book. She has the book, the BBC movie, the Keira Knightley movie version, the auto tape (the one I just finished listening to) and the soundtrack to the latter movie!
So I gave it a shot, and I loved it.
I think I loved listening to it more than I would reading it because you can get lost in the words on the page more than you could listening to someone read it to you.
Plus, it was something I looked forward to when I was in the car.
I don’t think I need to explain the plot of this book. If I do, I am very sorry for your living conditions. That rock must be heavy.
I want to talk more about the differences. I have seen the KK movie version a few different times and I find it to be one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. There are parts that aren’t in the movie that are in the book that I adore though.
For example, you get more interaction between the sisters and Miss. Bingley, Miss. Bingley and Mr. Darcy and their relationship as a whole. She is a most vile woman, but she is fun to listen to because she so desperately wants Mr. Darcy and he wants nothing to do with him. There are also two sisters to Mr. Bingley in the book. The other is married and her husband is there as well.
There is more feeling and cattiness in the books then there is in the movie, which I will repeat I do like very much. Jane Austen did a wonderful job painting what life would have been like back then for women and also giving hope to love.
The lady who read me this story, Allison Larkin, is MARVELOUS and I will be looking for more of the things she has done. I hear she has written her own books, which I might look for as well, but really her reading style is a delight and you should look into her as well.
Over all, I had a lovely experience with this book and the audio-reader and I think more people should look into audio books as well. I mean, we are in the cars more than not, am I right?
My mother is obsessively in love with this book. She has the book, the BBC movie, the Keira Knightley movie version, the auto tape (the one I just finished listening to) and the soundtrack to the latter movie!
So I gave it a shot, and I loved it.
I think I loved listening to it more than I would reading it because you can get lost in the words on the page more than you could listening to someone read it to you.
Plus, it was something I looked forward to when I was in the car.
I don’t think I need to explain the plot of this book. If I do, I am very sorry for your living conditions. That rock must be heavy.
I want to talk more about the differences. I have seen the KK movie version a few different times and I find it to be one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. There are parts that aren’t in the movie that are in the book that I adore though.
For example, you get more interaction between the sisters and Miss. Bingley, Miss. Bingley and Mr. Darcy and their relationship as a whole. She is a most vile woman, but she is fun to listen to because she so desperately wants Mr. Darcy and he wants nothing to do with him. There are also two sisters to Mr. Bingley in the book. The other is married and her husband is there as well.
There is more feeling and cattiness in the books then there is in the movie, which I will repeat I do like very much. Jane Austen did a wonderful job painting what life would have been like back then for women and also giving hope to love.
The lady who read me this story, Allison Larkin, is MARVELOUS and I will be looking for more of the things she has done. I hear she has written her own books, which I might look for as well, but really her reading style is a delight and you should look into her as well.
Over all, I had a lovely experience with this book and the audio-reader and I think more people should look into audio books as well. I mean, we are in the cars more than not, am I right?
newbsombrero's review against another edition
5.0
OH MU GOSH THIS BOOK WAS SO AMAZING! Jane Austen was just so witty. The characterization is absolutely beautiful. I hope to be that good at writing believable characters one day. So much delightfulness in one book.
rlou's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kstanga10's review against another edition
5.0
So good having it read in an audio book.. I laughed (and snorted) so much. I enjoyed this so much.
deadendprose's review against another edition
5.0
If you haven't reread Pride and Prejudice recently, here's your annual reminder to reread Pride and Prejudice. It's a good "read with friends" book!