A Pride and Prejudice Appreciation Post

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great April and start to spring. This month I read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen for the Rory Gilmore Book Club. It was also on my list for the Classics Club. I was very overdue for reading this classic and decided this was the year I was going to make it happen.

Synopsis

“Pride and Prejudice, one of the world’s most popular novels, quickly establishes itself as a charming satire with its hilarious opening line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Anthony Trollope once said of Jane Austen, “What she did, she did perfectly.” Today Austen is regarded as the first modern novelist. Pride and Prejudice – Austen’s own “darling child” – tells the story of fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet, one of five sisters who must marry rich, as she confounds the arrogant, wealthy Mr. Darcy. What ensues is one of the most delightful and engrossingly readable courtships known to literature, replete with finely drawn depictions of country manners, high society and high comedy, and, ultimately, the economy-driven march toward marriage. Written by a precocious Austen when she was just twenty-one years old, and filled with scintillating dialogue, Pride and Prejudice is, in the words of Eudora Welty, “as irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be.”

-Synopsis from inside front cover

Review

I hesitate to even refer to this as a review because this book is such a classic, pretty much the first book that comes to my mind when I think of classic novels, and I could only ever attempt to do it justice when writing about it. Not to mention, many, many others have reviewed it with a higher level of critique than I would ever attempt.

With that being said, I wanted to just share some of my favorite moments from the book instead, and provide a more modest review. To start, I listened to about half the book on audio and read the second half from a hardback copy I have owned for years.

The audio was of course wonderful and gave me a chance to differentiate the characters based on the voices of the narrator. The voices for Mrs. Bennet, Lydia, Jane, and Mr. Collins were among the most entertaining as their characters were each so distinct. However my general first impressions were that Elizabeth Bennet and her family were all very colorful characters from the moment they get the news of Mrs. Bingley arriving to town.

From the first ball at Netherfield we get a sense of who Elizabeth is, from her wit to her protectiveness over her family. I felt that the story really picked up for me once Bingley abruptly left for London and no one could figure out why. Elizabeth, of course, immediately suspects Mr. Darcy of being involved in discouraging Mr. Bingley from pursing Jane Bennet and she turns out to be right. When Elizabeth is at her most upset with Mr. Darcy he has completely fallen for her and proposes on the spot, bringing us the classic line…

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

-from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

By this point Elizabeth is confused by what others have told her about Mr. Darcy and the actions she has observed from the man himself. Which is the real Mr. Darcy? One of the people’s opinions she trusts, which also begins to change her feelings about him, is Mr. Darcy’s housekeeper, Mrs. Reynolds who speaks highly of him in his absence. Mr. Darcy himself ultimately has to untangle the lies and confusion which Elizabeth has heard about him, stemming from Mr. Whickham but also from Mr. Darcy’s own behavior.

The letter he sends Elizabeth in which he explains everything was heartfelt and genuine and gave him a chance to show his true colors, sans pride. Not only does he apologize, but without Elizabeth asking him to, Mr. Darcy works to make things right for her and her family, starting with Mr. Bingley and Jane. Through his actions Mr. Darcy shows Elizabeth that there is more than one side to him, and Elizabeth realizes that she judged him too harshly from the outset.

I love full circle endings especially those in which the fate of each character is revealed or at least hinted at, so I was very satisfied by this ending. It left me with a smile on my face which is always a good sign! Since we are all friends here I’ll admit the fact which is probably obvious by now that I had never read Pride and Prejudice until now, nor seen the movies. But now that is no longer the case and I feel “in the club” as it were with other readers 🙂 I’m not sure I would have read this at this time if it were not for the Classics Club and the Rory Gilmore Book Club, so once again I’m glad I chose to participate in these two book groups for the sake of getting me out of my comfort zone.

Next up for the Classics Club I will be reading The Awakening by Kate Chopin. For the Rory Gilmore Book Club I will be reading And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, so stay tuned for those reviews in the coming months.