Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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Pride and Prejudice has delighted generations of readers with its unforgettable cast of characters, carefully choreographed plot, and a hugely entertaining view of the world and its absurdities. With the arrival of eligible young men in their neighbourhood, the lives of Mr and Mrs Bennet and their five daughters are turned inside out and upside down. Pride encounters prejudice, upward-mobility confronts social disdain, and quick-wittedness challenges sagacity, as misconceptions and hasty judgements lead to a heartache and scandal, but eventually to true understanding, self-knowledge, and love. In this supremely satisfying story, Jane Austen balances comedy with seriousness, and witty observation with profound insight. If Elizabeth Bennet returns again and again to her letter from Mr Darcy, readers of the novel are drawn even more irresistibly by its captivating wisdom.
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What a love story

It's taken me a long time to write this review, as the book gave me a lot to think about and reflect upon. After reading it I watched both the film from 2005 with Keira Knightley and the BBC mini-series from 1995 with Colin Firth. Both, but particular the first, intensified the emotions and clarified some of the meanings. I struggled a bit whilst reading the book, particularly with the first half as some of the often long dialogue is obscure for a modern reader with no particular scholarly education in such literature. The language Austen used is flowing and intricate and though I loved it, it was also often difficult to follow and truly comprehend the very delicate hints and manoeuvres in society.

Pride and Prejudice is in my eyes the ultimate love story and I can't help but sigh and wonder where my very own Mr. Darcy is hiding. I love how they never get physical. Modern love stories, like predator and prey, seems to circle one thing and one thing only - lust and eventual sex. Here, they talk and argue, debate and dance and ever so slowly do their eyes open to see the other clearly.

Having always been a fan of the film from 2005, Keira Knightley's portrayal of Elizabeth is fixed in my mind, but I loved the layers the book added to her and I came to know her thoughts and reasoning so much better. She is a truly amazing character and Austen was a master at portraying multi-dimensioned characters.

It's very clear why Austen became such a successful author, but if you look at her own life it's actually rather depressing.* Born in 1775, she died just 42 years later, unwed. She lived by her pen, and it seems that she gave all her female characters what she never achieved; After some hardship they find true love in wealthy man and have all they could ever have wanted. I don't mean to demean her works, she also aptly portrayed how women of that time were forced to depend on men and her social commentary and realism is magnificent.

333 pages / published in 1813
Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2011

*on that note, Becoming Jane is a frightfully bland film and it's pretty sad how her life turned out.

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Should you wish to read something completely different, I recommend reading Mr Darcy, Vampyre.