If you love Pride & Prejudice, tell us why for a chance to win a copy of ELIGIBLE BY CURTIS SITTENFELD + £100 SWEATY BETTY voucher

[UrsulaMumsnet]

‘In 2009 it was One Day. Four years ago it was Gone Girl. This year the book of the summer is going to be Eligible’ The Times

Love! Sex! Darcy!

This is Pride and Prejudice but not as you know it. Darcy is a neurosurgeon, Bingley is a reality TV star and Cousin Willie is… well, that’s for you to find out.

Everyone is clamouring to get their hands on Eligible, the hottest book of the summer.

Luckily for you, we’ve teamed up with HarperCollins to offer you the chance to win a copy of the book PLUS a £100 voucher for Sweaty Betty.

If you love Pride and Prejudice, tell us why to be in with a chance to win. Good luck!

‘Dazzling’ Woman and Home

'Sheer joy… Giddy and glam and a hearty update of Pride and Prejudice’ Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist

‘If there exists a more perfect pairing than Curtis Sittenfeld and Jane Austen, we dare you to find it’ Elle

Curtis Sittenfeld is the bestselling author of the novels Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, and Sisterland, which have been translated into twenty-five languages. Her nonfiction has also been published widely.

This discussion is sponsored by Harper Collins and will end on 16 May

[ifigoup]

Me! Me! I love P&P because Mrs Bennett is absolutely hilarious (screaming; missing the soldiers), but I love Curtis Sittenfeld even more and I can't wait to see what she's done with this!

[Roseformeplease]

I love Curtis Sittenfield, particularly "American Wife" and find myself every bit as absorbed in them as I was, many years ago, when I first encountered Jane Austen. Unusually, I read "Northanger Abbey" first but it was the other novels that held me entranced, and now do the same for many of my pupils. Please, pick me and I will pass Curtis Sittenfield on to a new generation, just as my teachers and friends gave me Jane Austen.

[sassymuffin]

I love Pride and Prejudice because the "dislike at first sight" angle even 200 years later is still such a unique approach to one of the greatest love stories of all time.
It has every kind of character type imaginable, the sweet and naive Bingley and Jane, the comedic Mrs Bennet and Lydia, the pantomime villains Wickham and Lady Catherine and the stubborn and proud Darcy and Elizabeth to name but a few. What is there not to love?

[georgedawes]

It's my favourite book of all time, I've lost count of how many times I've read it. The wit and dialogue just sparkles; even though I know it pretty much word for word it never fails to make me smile. The characters are all unique and so well crafted, and of course the hero and heroine are just perfect. It is incredible it is still so fresh and relevant despite being written in regency times. I adore it!

[GinIsIn]

I love P&P because to me, Lizzie Bennett is the very first 'modern woman' in literature - she knows who she is and what she wants, and refuses to be cowed. I love her!

[Trooperslane]

This sounds bloody awful.

Our Jane will be spinning in her grave.

[TheNotoriousPMT]

I love P&P because so many people think it's a delightful love story of delicate ladies and dashing gentlemen, when in fact it is a deeply sarcastic, pomposity-puncturing bitchfest. All hail Queen Jane.

[TheNotoriousPMT]

Fenella has it

[katienana]

I love P&P because it is a truth universally acknowledged that it is one of the most well observed works of comedy ever committed to paper. I think it's wonderful that Darcy and Elizabeth both have to develop their characters in order to be worthy of each others love, both characters have believable flaws but they bring out the worst and then the best in each other. Perfection!

[DilysPrice]

I have to say that the Harper Collins blurb and the choice of puff quotes makes this sound absolutely appalling. It was only the comments from keen PPs which made me curious enough to google the author and find that she does actually sound quite good.

Anyway I love all Austen because of the quality of the writing and the dialogue - often imitated but never equalled. But what P&P has that gives it the extra edge is the scenes where we see Darcy falling irresistibly for Lizzy. That's what gives it that unbeatable combination of literary cred and swoony fan girl appeal.

[loosechange]

Classic novel. Good quality writing, with a female lead who is feisty and ahead of her time, who's not afraid to admit she was wrong. Male lead also appealing, and turns out to be reasonable, but not in a that - wa-so-obvious-from-the-start way.

Happy ever after ending and a few characters you can despise.

A winning combination.

[EDisFunny]

While poking fun at the society of the day, Jane Austen also managed to write a thoroughly enjoyable love story. It is well written and stands the test of time. I lover it.

[Bostin]

I love it because I never tire of it. No matter how many times I read it I still cringe at Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins's pomposity, laugh at Mr Bennet teasing his wife, find solace in the relationship between Jane and Lizzie, and rejoice when all is made right in the end.

[TheHiphopopotamus]

I love P&P because it's timeless. Boy meets girl, girl hates boy, boy pretends to hate girl but actually rather likes her, girl comes round and rather likes boy, they fall in love and voila!

It's what every crap chick lit book has been based on and hasn't done quite as well ever since.

[TheBitterBoy]

I have loved all of Curtis Sittenfeld's other novels, particularly Prep and The American Wife, and as a fan of P&P I am intrigued and looking forward to reading Eligible. Pride and Prejudice has stood the test of time because of the strength of the characterisation, every one feels 'real' even today.

[Trebormints74]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I am P & P's greatest fan. Over the years I hav come to ardently admire and love the book more and more. It is of utmost importance that I win this prize.

[britnay]

I love P&P as it was my first taste of Jane Austen and it tells a tale that, despite its age, still felt relevant to the time I was reading it (13 year old in the late 90's!). It made me fall in love with older novels and opened up a huge genre to me. it showed that despite 100's of years passing by, it seems that some things never change! :)

[daisyduke66]

Pride and Prejudice - a book I grew up with and loved (despite tortuous English Lit lessons where, often, they did nothing but spoil a loved piece of literature). A mix of gentle humour and biting satire which works wonders on its audience and never ceases to please.

[mrsmuddlepies]

I love Pride and Prejudice because the theme is timeless. We are all guilty of prejudging someone based on first impressions and being too proud to back down over initial assumptions about someone's character. The growing attraction between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy is both romantic and erotic. His growing desire for Elizabeth is set against his rather arrogant belief in his superiority of class and results in the suppression of his natural emotions.This is exciting to observe and is perhaps the reason that Mr Darcy is widely seen as a desirable hero by many readers.
Pride and Prejudice has amongst it's lesser themes, class struggle, sexual abuse, romantic love, the danger of poor judgment,and, for Mumsnetters, the importance of family.
The novel is often comic because of the the ridiculous behaviour of some characters. It is easy to laugh at Mr Collins (and pity poor Charlotte). It is easy to feel a righteous dislike when faced with Lady Catherine De Bourgh's dominating, manipulative conduct. She would make an exceptionally difficult Mother in Law. I am sure that many Mumsnetters would find much to moan about if saddled with a MIL like her!
It is a book that can be re-read over and over again and it still has the capacity to resonate with modern audiences. I really enjoyed the American Wife and I think Jane Austen would appreciate the situation of Alice Blackwell, married to a man (President) less intelligent than herself. It is a situation that Jane was familiar with (think of Mr Collins and Charlotte). I am sure that Curtis Sittenfeld will make a brilliant job of giving Pride and Prejudice (and characters) a contemporary setting in order to retell a timeless story.
I would love to win a copy please......

[pennwood]

I love P & P because I can read it time & time again without tiring of such a great classic. It is a love story with some comedy, & characters with different facets. It has the perfect ending too.

[WhereYouLeftIt]

I love it on so many levels.

As a comedy of manners, poking fun at the requirements of respectability whilst also making the serious point of how constricting it could be if you were to avoid being ostracised. The rigidity of the social strata, how easy it could be for the respectable Bennets to fall into penury on the death of the father (as happened in Sense & Sensibility), the sheer vulnerability of being a woman in the society as described.

And then the little asides, the social history as it were, such as 'tourists' being admitted to grand houses and given a tour. I read up on it, this was normal then, I was amazed!

As a bit of a mystery - why is D'Arcy behaving like this? Oh, that makes sense now! Which acts as a reminder to not judge a book by its cover, and to think about what might be driving people's behaviour beyond what you can observe yourself.

As a damned good romance. Whilst Lizzie may have fine eyes, what really attracts these two to each other is their characters.

And of course the way all the people are instantly recognisable - the snobs, the nobs, the sycophants, the self-absorbed, the resigned to their life, the practical, the sexual predator, the naive, the drama-llama. (Admit it, you know exactly who I mean by those descriptions!) Austen makes each and every one of her characters utterly believable.

[puddleduckmummy]

Now that sounds like good spin on P&P. I love that Elizabeth Bennett is not an airhead. She is a great role model. I also love poor long suffering Mr Bennett, that wife and 5 daughters, the man needs a medal (or a holiday!)

[19sharon]

We still read Jane Austen some two hundred years on because her novels, especially Pride and Prejudice, are often considered to be harmless comedies of manners and morality, always set in polite society. But they actually contain much darker subtexts, and we’re still able to respond to these. Austen’s novels aren’t fairy tales. Far from it. Central to the popularity of Pride and Prejudice is the romance between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy – a storyline helped by Colin Firth’s popular portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy in the BBC’s coverage of the book. This revived the story all over again.

[ImperialBlether]

It does sound a great spin on Pride and Prejudice. I'd love to know what the author does with Mr Collins (best comic character ever to have inhabited a novel, in my opinion.)

[lesley37]

It's a well written story full of satire and and a great picture of a long gone way of life.