Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics)
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Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics) description
Elizabeth Bennet is the perfect Austen heroine: intelligent, generous, sensible, incapable of jealousy or any other major sin. That makes her sound like an insufferable goody-goody, but the truth is she's a completely hip character, who if provoked is not above skewering her antagonist with a piece of her exceptionally sharp -- but always polite -- 18th century wit. The point is, you spend the whole book absolutely fixated on the critical question: will Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy hook up? |
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Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics) Customer Reviews
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Pride and Prejudice: The Source....
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Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", first published in 1813, continues to be a fertile source of material for television and film adaptations down to the current day. First marketed as a romantic novel, "Pride and Prejudice" might be labeled today a romantic comedy. At least part of its enduring appeal lies in Austen's biting social commentary on the rituals leading to marriage as practiced in Regency England.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a good wife." So begins the novel, as the five more or less eligible young Bennet daughters and their scheming mother learn of the arrival in their small English village of a wealthy young man and his wealthy friends. A village dance provides the opportunity to meet the newcomers. The wealthy young man, Mr. Bingley, quickly becomes attracted to Miss Jane Bennet, the pretty, even-tempered, but reserved oldest sister. Elizabeth Bennet, the spirited and headstrong second sister, meets but almost immediately dislikes his seemingly haughty friend Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth is more interested in the dashing young Army officer Mr. Wickham, who feeds her derogatory stories about Mr. Darcy that she is all too prepared to hear. As the relationship between Mr. Bingley and Jane deepens, Elizabeth is ardently courted by her cousin Mr Collins, an obnoxious and clueless clergyman. Elizabeth, to the despair of her mother, will not have Mr. Collins, who instead marries her spinster friend Charlotte. When Mr. Bingley suddenly departs the village without proposing to Jane, Elizabeth soon suspects the proud Mr. Darcy of curtailing the relationship based on Jane's lesser social status. While visiting Charlotte, Elizabeth is astonished to receive a proposal of marriage from Mr. Darcy, which she refuses in the most scathing terms.
This failed proposal is the dramatic crux of the story. Mr. Darcy, mortified by the refusal and by Elizabeth's accusations with respect to his pride and his actions toward Jane and Mr. Wickham, writes a long letter to her. The letter, if not exactly an apology, makes clear that Wickham's accusations were false, and that Mr. Darcy's actions in separating Mr. Bingley and Jane were based on the perception that Jane was less enthusiastic about marriage than her intended partner. Jane in turn realizes that she has guilty of prejudice as well, an understanding reinforced by a chance meeting with Mr. Darcy and his sister at his home in Darbyshire. When Elizabeth's flirtatious younger sister Lydia elopes with Mr. Wickham, Mr. Darcy will begin to have the opportunity to prove his character and ultimately his love to Elizabeth.
Austen's novel contains a huge cast and a series of cascading mishaps, yet the focus remains tightly on the central thread of the relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. It seems clear that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy were attracted to each other fairly early in the story, yet were unable to appreciate each other for pride and prejudice.
Unlying the humor in the social mishaps is a grim economic reality of Regency England, that failure to make a good marriage could doom middle class women like Jane and Elizabeth to a life of poverty. For Elizabeth's friend Charlotte, still single at 27, a loveless marriage to Mr Collins brought the saving grace of financial security. Lydia's elopement with Mr. Wickham not only disgraced her family but threatened to make her ineligible for marriage altogether. Elizabeth's family's lack of social standing and manners is a serious barrier to the making of good marriages for her and her sisters, a fact less obvious to today's readers.
Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" features a engaging plot and lots of excellent dialogue wrapped around a romantic storyline that holds up astonishingly well nearly two hundred years on. It is highly recommended to fans of the various Jane Austen film productions as the entertaining source of the story. |
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