Why, oh why, is it always Pride and Prej, rather than any other Austen?

[Greythorne]

i am coaching a teenager who has just announced that their set text is P and P.
I am sooooooo bored with P and P.

Am I the only one who finds Pride and Prej very predictable with characters who are wooden and a plot that's a bit non-existent? Why can't they set Emma or S and S?

Tell me I am wrong and give me reasons to love P and P.

DD is doing P&P. I keep telling her how funny it is. packed full of grotesque characters (Mrs B, Mr Collins, Lady Catherine).
Emma irritates me - she's so bloody flghty.

You are right, Emma is flighty....but Elizabeth is so worthy

I like all the books but have to admit that I still like P&P best.

I used to teach, 'Emma' or, 'Sense And Sensibility.' Several characters in P&P are meant to be quite cartoonish in order to make us appreciate Jane and Lizzie more in comparison and thus show why Darcy and Bingley are 'taken in by them' as Miss Bingley might say!

My main concern about P&P is that dd1 calls me Mrs Bennet!

I like 'Emma' because she is credible and because, like Marianne Dashwood, she can learn from her mistakes - she is far less irritating than bloody Emma Bovary anyway.

No, Jane is worthy: Lizzie is feisty.

yes Lizzie has spirit. and she's funny.

Is Persuasion ever a set text?

Lizzie is not really feisty though, is she?

She is not dull like Jane but she's incredibly moral.

but she is, otherwise she would have just married Mr collins.

Re-read the first Darcy proposal and then come back and tell me that Lizzie isn't feisty! :)

oh yes. that one too.

Ok
You are enthusing me for Lizzie
Good work

Elinor is worthy. I love her but she is deffo worthy.

Persuasion is another favourite of mine but I still reread P&P at least once a year (and watch the BBC mini series at least as often).

I don't like the BBC series. Don't like Alison Steadman or Jennifer E or Colin Firth in it.

Pride and Prejudice is easily my favourite and I can read it over and over again!

Persuasion is my favourite by a mile.

Persuasion is my favourite too.

I'm reading "Death Comes to Pemberley" by PD James and although I was very sniffy indeed about the concept I have to say I'm quite enjoying it. Col Fitzwilliam conveniently seems to have become a baddie, but other than that it's all quite plausible.

The first time I read Persuasion, I was in need of a decompression chamber. It was so intense at the end. Love it.

'Persuasion' is beautiful. 'I am half agony, half hope.' Yum.

But P&P really does have the best characters. You can't help but love it. Mr Bennet, Mrs Bennet, Mr Collins, even Mary. "You have delighted us long enough."

Mrs Bennet is so like my mother. I can totally understand Helen Fielding using the character in Bridget J. We recognise these people around us today. I love it!I just don't think the others have the same character development. Emma definitely not - I don't think it comes close to P&P.

I loved Pride & Prejudice when I first read it as a teenager (set text for O level), but since discovering Persuasion I much prefer that.

I think Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot are more believable characters, and Captain Wentworth is a far more romantic hero than Mr Darcy.

I've got the BBC DVD of Persuasion with Amanda Root & Ciaran Hinds - simply gorgeous .

We did Persuasion as a set text for A level. This was twenty years ago mind.

I remember our class all raging about Anne being such a wet doormat and why didn't she just man up and tell Mary and Elizabeth to get stuffed? Our poor teacher.

I am reading P & P with my nine year old DD at the moment. It is a rite of passage to comic characters etc... P & P is like an old trusty friend and will be for her too I think. I think the others are just as wonderful.