Favourite Amongst Books

Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen

I know practically every woman will tell you that Pride and Prejudice is her favourite story. With good reason. She has probably seen the movie more than a few times and loves the manners and scenes of English society. Of course, the 1995 BBC version of the story is the absolute best version that follows the book so well. But have they read the book? Trust me, it is even better.

So what it is about this book that makes women dream and men shake their head and don't understand?

First, you need to understand a little about Jane Austen, herself. Jane was born in 1775 in the village of Steventon in Hamspshire, England. Her father was a reverend. Jane wrote stories about what she knew, that is - society. She had a lot of connections and saw a lot of things happen in the everyday goings on of society. That, combined with her sharp wit, she wrote about what she knew best and could be deemed an expert on the topic. In this book, particularly, there is an abundance of wit. Jane herself called this book "rather too light & bright & sparkling."

Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813. It is a novel about family and the everyday life of society in the English countryside, specifically the Bennet family with five daughters. Elizabeth is the sister who has the most wit, according to her father. We are introduced to Mr. Darcy, who is tall, handsome, and very rich, at a dance where he shuns Elizabeth as not being handsome enough to tempt him. While Darcy's good friend Mr. Bingley begins to fall in love with Elizabeth's elder sister, Jane. The more Elizabeth sees of Mr. Darcy the more she despises his pride and arrogance, but Darcy is falling in love with Elizabeth, even though her situation in life is well beneath his own. At last Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, and she refuses him, explaining that his selfishness and contempt toward everyone would never induce her to marry him. He goes away wounded, and realizes that while he was a gentleman with manners who was brought up with good principles, he was left to live by his own selfish pride and conceit. He is determined to change. At the same time, Elizabeth is corrected by Darcy on matters of which she was mistaken in her first impressions, and so her opinion of Darcy slowly changes over several more months. But family matters get in the way, and as a reader, you don't know what is going to become of the Bennet family and what Darcy will think of them. 

I think what detours most people from reading this book is the language. It is not written like the modern fiction writers whose works can be read in a flash. Modern books are so focused on the action and keeping a reader entertained. Jane's way of writing is full of minute details centered around the characters. Sometimes the action of a scene is written in one sentence, while the thoughts going on inside Elizabeth Bennet's head last for a few pages. The narrator of the book is one that overlooks the whole situation and can go into the mind of each character.

This book is one of the best novels in the English language, and it is well worth reading if you haven't. I read it every couple years, and each time I read it, I enjoy it so much more. You know it is a good book when it gets better each time you read it. This is the most lovely version, by the way. This cloth-bound Penguin Classics Edition is so beautiful. I treated myself to it last week when I was at Oxford Exchange. Because lovely books are hard for me to resist.