Welcome to Week 2 of 7 Weeks of Jane Austen.
This week is…
Pride and Prejudice Week!
To get things started here are some thoughts on the original
novel.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues.
So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues.
I think that Pride and Prejudice may well be Jane Austen’s
most famous work, or maybe it is that Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy are one of
the most famous literary couple next to Heathcliff and Cathy…
But moving on swiftly, I remember one of the first things
that sprang to mind when I first read Pride and Prejudice and that was, “Why
the heck are there so many letters?”. It’s true, as soon as I came across a
page italic writing I cringes knowing it was going to be followed my two or
three more pages…there is something about italic writing that does that to me
for some reason or other *shiver*.
Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite Jane Austen’s but
mainly because of the supporting cast. I love Mr Bennett and the Gardiner’s. To me they definitely make it worth
the read and all the more enjoyable especially as most of the time I wanted to
bang Darcy and Elizabeth’s heads together and yell at them to act like adults
and communicate without jumping to conclusion. Buy hey, without the
misunderstandings there would be no story.
While I really like P & P, I think that a lot of people forget how long it is.
ReplyDeleteThat there is this big chunk of space in the middle where nothing much happens. I mean, nothing really interesting, just lots of small things that set the stage for what happens next, but you gotta admit it's a little boring at times.
At least that's how I felt when I first read it.
After a few more reads I began to sort of enjoy the ride, and fall into the narration. But yeah, Darcy isn't even there for a big chunk of the story.