Pride and Prejudice

What else is there to say about this novel, or what can I add to the numerous reviews that have been written already?
Only my own reactions: That I loved rereading this so much, even more than I had expected. It is so lively and witty, so emotional and heartfelt, yet never cheesy or shallow. It is funny and comical, but never unjust in its authenticity. While the story is firmly rooted in its time, the features of the characters are timeless and still true to life. And I do think that Elizabeth Bennet must be one of the best female characters ever written!

I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy this going in, but I was instantly charmed by how *funny* it is. Mr Collins, Mrs Bennet, Lady Catherine are all very funny characters - the scene with Mr Collins attempting to propose to Elizabeth is incredibly good. It loses something in personal appeal when the romance is focused on, but I was constantly impressed and compelled by how well crafted the whole story is. I was put off by the romance feeling unlikely given class differences and all the other issues the two face, but it seems unfair of me to hold that against the book when so many other novels are built on the impossible and I allow it. What carried me through is how *good* her writing consistently is, even when she's didactically expounding show more the morals or fully explaining the withheld emotions at earlier points. There's a lightness at almost all points, even the most dramatic events being cut through with particular characters being laughably daft, and yet still it makes you take the events seriously and believe them.

The character writing is really good - I hesitate to say "realistic", although you can recognise the types - in terms of creating someone who feels fully fleshed out with a multitude of quirks and showing it clearly through small bits of dialogue. Everyone seems very different in their reactions to events, in how they think, in how they talk, such that even the most minor characters are easily recognisable and feel a full part of the world. You look forward to seeing how they react, and even the most persistent hobby horses of the characters never felt tired to me - I always loved seeing Mrs Bennet yet again fail to understand the concept of an entailment, something I assume many readers share.

I regularly referred to a comprehensive annotated version in case I was missing something, but it was only rarely actually helpful - there are obviously major differences in how romance and society work but so much is illustrated very clearly while avoiding too much "this is bad", "this is good" type stuff. Almost everything is transmitted in dialogue with absolutely minimal description of anything - the effect is very different to most modern writing but I found it delightful, owing to her great skill at dialogue writing.

So yeah I was really impressed and enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. I would rather the whole book was pure comedy instead of having the romance intrude but I bow to Austen's great skill at both, and the combination is really lovely and a charming read, both as a work of entertainment and an education on writing both of the time and timelessly. Great book. show less

This had been in my TBR pile for years, and after having finished it I have to ask myself why the god damn fuck did I not read this sooner.

There's pretty much nothing I can say about this book that hasn't already been said. This is my second Austen book, after Northanger Abbey, and I enjoyed this book. Austen has a writing style I enjoy, and many of her lines and observations are brilliant, it's not hard to see why she is so well-regarded as an author and I say that as someone who is pretty picky about classic literature - I find many works cited as 'classic' to be woefully over-rated (The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, Wuthering Heights, etc)

The one thing I can and will say, is that as much as I enjoyed this book and have come to show more enjoy Jane Austen as a whole (I have a couple more of her books in my TBR pile that I am now very eager to read) I am certainly glad that I did not live in Austen's time, where a woman did not have a lot of options, but a lot of societal/legal constraints!

M.M. Strawberry Library & Reviews show less

530 reviews on LT alone. What in the world can I add that hasn’t already been said about this classic? Probably not a lot. First I will admit sheepishly that I lived to be (ahem) a certain age without ever experiencing any desire to read Jane Austen. My woeful public education, obviously, never presented the opportunity and, as an adult, I never felt the urge to pick up one of her books. But here on LT I find myself reading books I would have never considered in the past, wonderful books, not to be missed books, ‘why did I wait so long?’ books. So one day while in Barnes and Noble, I found myself standing in line with “Pride and Prejudice” in my hand.

So I finally opened it and settled in to see what all the fuss was about. Oh show more my, it didn’t take long to see that this was going to be one book that lived up to the hype. The one thing that surprised me greatly was the humor in this book about the landed gentry in the 18th century English countryside. I never expected to be laughing out loud at biting humor, shared in the proper style of English manners:

“Sir William Lucas had been formerly in trade in Meryton where he had made a tolerable fortune, and risen to the honour of knighthood by an address to the king during his mayoralty. The distinction has, perhaps, been felt too strongly. It had given him a disgust to his business and to his residence in a small market town; and, quitting them both, he had removed with his family to a house about a mile from Meryton, denominated from that period Lucas Lodge; where he could think with pleasure of his own importance, and, unshackled by business, occupy himself solely in being civil to all the world.” (Page 19)

Austen ridicules this class struggle at every turn, but does so in the most proper manner. Her development of the main characters, the fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennett and the aloof but kind hearted Mr. Darcy, is brilliant. But for me, it was the development of some of the more minor characters that flawlessly revealed her opinion of the classes: Mrs. Bennet, trying desperately to claw her way to the upper class to assure her daughters of a proper marriage; the pompous Mr. Collins, so overwhelmed by those of wealth that he can hardly contain himself; and his benefactor, Lady Catherine, so full of herself and her position that she actually believes she can forcibly convince Elizabeth not to marry Darcy, since she is so below him, that had me laughing out loud again and again.

There’s nothing more I can say except, “Will someone please point me to the next Jane Austen book?” Very higly recommended. show less

Perfection.

This is either my 10th or my 12th reread. I haven’t logged them all, and I never reviewed! What can I say now except, “it’s good to be home” and “you can’t do Jane Austen justice”? If it’s all right with you, I’ll fangirl, think a bit, have an emotion or two, all in bullet points.

✨ How beautifully constructed this book is! There isn’t a scene, a chapter, a plot twist out of place. The timing is flawless.

✨ It struck me how well Austen writes families (characters go without saying). You immediately know what the atmosphere is like in this particular house, what it would feel like to be there.

✨ I want to write down every sentence! And hug it - hello, it’s nice to see you again. Yes, you too: show more ”Kitty has no discretion in her coughs,” said her father; ”she times them ill.”

✨ ”She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me…” Oh, Mr Darcy, you entitled introvert, you have no idea what’s in store for you. Mwahaha.

✨ What were my favourite parts, again? Is it Jane and Elizabeth staying at Netherfield? The ball at Netherfield aka “my family is so embarrassing”? Elizabeth/Darcy banter aka “the mother of all romcom banters? Elizabeth visiting Pemberly? I give up, every chapter is my favourite.

✨ The ”accomplished woman” conversation is great on so many levels: as a satire and societal critique; as a way to for the characters to be more themselves.

✨ Hurray for Elizabeth! ”Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to plague you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart.” ”My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” I should try saying the latter to people more often. It will make my life better, I am sure.

✨ Once again, I watched The Proposal crash and burn in slow motion. Oooooh….

✨ Captain Wentworth did it better; but Darcy also knows how to write a letter. ”You must, therefore, pardon the freedom with which I demand your attention; your feelings, I know, will bestow it unwillingly, but I demand it of your justice.”

✨ The foundation of any good relationship is getting out of the swamp of me, myself and I, and taking a step towards the other person. ”By you, I was properly humbled,” said Darcy to Elizabeth.

You were humbled by each other, and I love you for it. show less

Perception is everything, but rational analysis and self-reflection can correct that.
Second reading of this book, after 20 years, and I still find it one of the most accomplished, most ingenious, and most interesting novels ever written. And to think that it was published as early as 1813, when the classical European novel was still in its infancy.
Before I continue my praise, I should mention a few weaknesses I noticed during my second reading, which—in my opinion—are primarily related to that early date. First, there's the style and language used. These feel archaic and formalistic, especially in the dialogues, which often feel very contrived. Perhaps this is logical, as this dates from the early nineteenth century and reflects the show more language of that time. Austen and her family also belonged to the upper middle class, where "refined language" was a hallmark of status. When I started my second reading, I did need some time to adjust (I fear future generations will find this language and style increasingly difficult to cope with). This may also be because this novel is particularly "verboos": not the action, but the dialogues and conversations, and the internal deliberations that accompany them, drive the story forward. And so they receive considerable emphasis; they are very "present". That, too, requires adjustment, and my initial reaction was: "Whoa, this seems like endless talking and talking, and internal processing, ad nauseam."

Finally, the "spirit" of the milieu in which this novel is set, the pre-Victorian upper class in England, also is a bit of a hard nut to crack. All characters belong to wealthy families, live in households with a large number of servants, and enjoy a prosperous standard of living. The values they cherish also reflect this: outward reputation is the most important asset, status is measured by annual income and relationships with "major" figures in society, land ownership is far superior to commercial and artisanal activity (there's no trace of industry in this novel), and so on. Naturally, there's also a patriarchal aspect to this: men determine (at least outwardly) the course families take, while women are secondary and are expected to behave as passive, subordinate subjects. As a 21st-century person, you can be thoroughly irritated by numerous aspects of the society Austen portrays.

But the wonderful thing is that Austen uses all these (supposed) weaknesses to transform them into strengths. First of all, the very formalistic language. This is cleverly used to underscore underlying, often sarcastic, messages. Many of the dialogues between the characters shine precisely because of the carefully considered choice of words, highlighting both the positive and—especially—the negative aspects. Often, it's also the underlying messages that people consciously want to convey to each other that are important. Especially in the opening chapters, all the characters comment extensively on the behavior of others, including what they say, the way they say it, their body language, or lack thereof. Judgments are made primarily based on external characteristics and according to very conservative, bourgeois principles. The motto "perception is everything," which was only explicitly formulated in the 20th century as an important principle of how people relate to each other, is implicitly elevated here (already a century earlier) to a central point of interaction. The misperception that main character Lizzie has of the wealthy and seemingly haughty Darcy is the foundation that will drive the entire evolution of the central characters in this novel.

There's an additional aspect to this. Austen not only describes how characters perceive and communicate with each other, she also pays considerable attention to the internal processing of those impressions, especially in Lizzie's case, but also in Darcy's. She constantly draws us into their minds, allowing us to follow the intense rational and emotional processes of these protagonists. Both Lizzie and Darcy incorporate formal and informal, external and internal, personal and social aspects into their reflections. At one point, Lizzie even applies a form of historical criticism to determine whether the claims of and about a particular character (the perfidious Mr. Wickham) hold water.

Sometimes these analyses (a prefiguration of the later stream of consciousness) are so detailed and extensive that they demand some perseverance from the reader. But they certainly testify to Austen's enormous psychological insight. And in that respect, there's also a typically 19th-century message attached to them, which she seems to consciously convey: seemingly perception is everything, but perception can be deceptive, because we rarely know all the elements of a situation or another person; but through careful rational and emotional analysis, this can be adjusted, and a quasi-complete judgment certainly is possible. So many years later, that message seems too naively optimistic, but it does, at least, yield a beautiful story.

Another additional aspect: Lizzie and Darcy actually employ a form of self-reflection that feels very modern. Lizzie, in particular, meticulously considers, analyzes and reconsiders her own behavior and judgment, in a way that—especially towards the end—is very hard on herself and sometimes even borderline painful. This is a level that, in my opinion, was only reached decades later, with Dostoevsky, Joyce, and Woolf.

Oh, I could go on and on with my praise. Because I haven't even mentioned the humor Austen injected into this novel, the wit in the observations, the sarcasm in the dialogues; just think of characters like Mr. Collins and the domineering Lady Catherine de Bourgh. This is simply delightful. And I haven't even mentioned the romantic story, the improbable turnaround in the personal relationship between Lizzie and Darcy. In that context, a final observation. Some literary experts measure the value and success of a novel by the extent to which the characters undergo development throughout the story. Well, in this respect, Pride and Prejudice can absolutely be called a very successful example. So much so that, after my second reading, I'm adjusting my (already very high) rating from a 4 to a 4.5 star. That speaks volumes, I guess. show less

Jane Austen is boring, insipid, cliche, blah blah blah. Spare me. This novel charmed my socks off. The prose is witty and complex, turning itself inside out and stealthily ensnaring the reader's consciousness so that pages rush by the more your appetite increases for the next page, and the next, and the next. I loved reading this book and was genuinely sad to see it come to an end.