Pride and Prejudice

[WastedYouth]

What's it really like? does it live up to the hype? What is it actually about?

Is there anyone else here that hasn't read it? I can't be the only one?

It is a great read with a very satisfying ending. It is very funny too.

it is chick lit with bonnets, all about wanting / not wanting a man, or wanting the wrong one, or the wrong one wanting you.

No, I'm sure you're not the only one but I am surprised you have no idea what it's actually about - it is sort of ingrained into out culture, Bridget Jones being one example.

Basically it's about a family, the Bennetts, who have 5 daughters, and the mother wants to get them all married off the rich men. The main character is Elizabeth Bennett, the second oldest, and the novel charts her romance with the very rich Mr Darcy who she initially despises but comes to love. There is a whole array of characters though, Mr Collins is particularly memorable...

You will enjoy it if you like nicely observed social comedy, dry wit and a bit of romance

Making assumptions and choosing what to believe. Social expectations in late 18th /early 19th century

I think I'll give it a go. I found "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" a few weeks ago, For some reason I really wanted to read that but figured I should at least read the proper one first

I didn't get on with it. I like "proper" literature and I like chick lit, but at different times and for different reasons. This is just Chick Lit with an undeserved reputation for being "proper" literature. I would say it is worth familiarising yourself with the plot, just so you understand where a lot of stuff comes from, but it is not a life changing read.

dh bought me 3 of those for Christmas - just started P and P and the Zombies !

I love it - one of my all time favourites. First read as a teenager and always something different to find - but then I think that about other books - as I get older I have a different perspective or see things from a different character's point of view. My other faves are Jane Eyre and Rebecca. But I read lots of other stuff as well.

Give it a go - get it from the library then if you don't like it you've not lost anything! And come back and tell us how you got on.....

I've just ordered it off ebay for £1.99 will let you know how it goes. x

How can you say it's not proper literature?!

P&P and Zombies also very funny, but much better when you've read P&P.

You need to read P&P before P&P and Zombies, otherwise the latter is just nonsense: with the knowledge of P&P it is hilarious, especially Charlotte Lucas.

P&P is really pithy and witty, with the most outrageously funny characterisation and depth and style and romance and simmering passions and a really feisty heroine. It is deffo not chick lit.

Janeite unsurprisingly sums it up well! One of my favourite books ever. Re-read it every couple of years.

Lovely book. Funny too.
It's a comfort read. I read it about once a year and i always see something different in it

It's basically Cinderella, but great

I'm quite looking forward to getting this now

I'll read P&P before p&p&zombies ...

If I like this one, I might try Sense & Sensibility.

If you enjoyed P and P you might also enjoy Vanity Fair. It is one of my favourites and read every year or so.

I keep thinking I must try harder with these bonnety things, but I can't really cope with books, literature or otherwise, unless there's a telephone in them.

(although I do like Lady Chatterley and Wuthering Heights aka Bonnets with shagging/bonnets with bastards respectively)

Alison Steadman playing ubiquitous BonnetMother puts me off as well.

It is not just chick lit, it is incredibly well-written, well observed social comedy and it deals with what were absolutely crucial issues for women in Jane Austen's time. Not getting married was an absolute disaster for most women - being an Old Maid was a humiliating, infantilised state and usually a very poor one as well, so the issue of how one chooses one's husband was incredibly important, much more so than now.

Pmsl at ' Bonnets with bastards'

Alison Steadman is enough to put one off both books and breathing. She is soooooo wrong as Mrs Bennet and was grossly miscast/directed.

Vanity Fair good too.

yes- she was like a parody of bonnetwomanhood.....

I agree with HerBeatidude. It is a wonderful book. I love all her books except Mansfield Park - Fanny Price is unbearable.

Mrs Bennett was right to worry about who her daughters would marry. They would be out of their home when their father died.

I also love Vanity Fair.

Well, I'm a few chapters in and I must admit, I'm finding the old English quite difficult. I'm also finding it really hard to relate to ... maybe I'm just a bit dim?

I've put it down for now and have started reading "Getting rid of Matthew". Not as sophisticated I know but its good as a light read.

I do hope to come back to P&P though, I just find I have to REALLY concentrate when I'm reading it, or I end up reading the same sentance over and over again trying to make sense of it

I liked Alison Steadman as Mrs Bennett and in the later film adaptation, I liked Brenda Blethyn even more.

You need to know a bit about the social mores and expectations of the time to make sense of it.

Lydia, for example is portrayed as a complete slapper Bad Girl, whereas these days she would be seen as a victim of child sex abuse, as she is under 16.

However, Mr Darcy's sister is shown as more sinned against than sinning for almost doing the same thing as Lydia.

Lizzie's prejudice against Mr Darcy is contrasted with her sister Jane's extreme good humour and refusal to see evil in any one, in which she is equally as misguided as Lizzie.

I could go on

and on

.....

P and P is amazing, one of the best stories ever! If you want more, try Mr Darcy's Diary.

The reason Pride and Prejudice has stood the test of time is, in addition to all those qualities Janeite so accurately lists, because it carries universal truths about the human condition, and the worries and concerns of the main characters are as true today as they were when it was written.

You need to look beyond the language used to see what Austen is saying. As for relating to it, transport it to modern day in your mind. To give just one example, balls are massively important throughout the novel ? they may be formal occasions but the gossip, rumour-mongering, flirtations, insults and slights are really not that different from what we experienced at discos/parties at a similar age?