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Tuesday 22 November 2011

***Review*** Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen


On the Back of the Book

My copy doesn’t say anything... so for one review only we’re going to visit Goodreads.

(Goodreads Description)

"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. Renowned literary critic and historian George Saintsbury in 1894 declared it the "most perfect, the most characteristic, the most eminently quintessential of its author's works," and Eudora Welty in the twentieth century described it as "irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be."

Pre Read Thoughts

This is one of those books that I’ve been meaning to read for ages and never found the time to sit down and do so. So with a half finished blanket (see Wuthering Heights review) and winter fast approaching I thought I’d get an audiobook and get down to work. I’m also reading this for a favourites challenge on GR. I bought a physical copy of the book at my local RSPCA charity shop for £1.25 as I like knowing what page I’m on and the money went to help some poor, unfortunate animals. My cover is rather dull, with just a small picture of Mr Darcy on the cover. There isn’t a synopsis either which is more than a tad annoying.


Post Read Thoughts

I celebrated finishing this. I wasn’t a fan of it at all. In my opinion nothing actually happened I personally believe that I could’ve written the whole book in a sentence. Actually that sounds like a challenge, a challenge I simply must take up. So here we go, Pride and Prejudice in a sentence.

“One day Elizabeth Bennet met Mr Darcy, they hated each other for a while but eventually fell in love with one another and got married.”

Job done. I don’t get why Jane wasted so much time on it. Since she did though I should probably review it. The writing style didn’t capture my attention and even listening to it didn’t help. My attention kept wandering to the good looking chaps on my bedroom wall. I did get sick of hearing of ‘politeness’ though and if I ever hear the word ‘civility’ again I may have to hunt you down.

The characters. I have no idea what to say about them except I didn’t really like any of them. I wanted to drown them in a vat of something especially Mrs Bennet. Oh Lord! Does that woman know when to shut up? I couldn’t bear her and I was sick of hearing about her nerves. She was so two-faced and she had no idea of what her kids were feeling. Mr Bennet wasn’t much better. He spent his life in a different room because he was foolish and chose his wife because of her pretty face. They both have favourite children and that isn’t right. Surely it affected them all.

The narrator of my audiobook was okay. I liked her although her voice started to grate on me occasionally. If it wasn’t for her though, I’d still be stuck on page 88. The other major plus is that I can do other stuff at the same time. I personally like to crochet. I did mention the blanket. It’s still not finished. I’m going to need another book.

Overall I’m not fond of this book, though I know plenty of people that love it. If you want a classic love story like this then I’m actually going to suggest Wuthering Heights which has a better story. I’m not sure what would improve the story for me... maybe some zombies... now there’s an idea! I actually think that if you’re a fan of classic love stories you’ll have already read this but maybe you could revisit it and tell me what I’m missing.


My Rating

2 stars – Not my cup of tea I’m afraid. It didn’t grab me and the only reason that I managed to finish it is my audiobook. I won’t try to talk you out of reading this if you really want to but if you like some action in stories, you’ve took a wrong turning somewhere because there isn’t any here.

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