Title: Pride and Prejudice Author: Jane Austen
Format: Kindle Edition
Blurb (from Goodreads):
"When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited, while he struggles to remain indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life."
My Review:
This was one of those books I'd meant to read for a long, long time and when I'd eventually gotten down to reading it- found that I had no inclination to finish it. I finally decided to pick it up again as part of the South African Book Lovers' Book Hoarders Reading Challenge on Goodreads and I'm really glad I did.
Firstly, I would like to place on record the fact that the main objection I have to reading classics (especially Jane Austen novels) is the flowery language, complex sentence construction and the sheer wordiness of it all. Although this continued to frustrate me as I read on, I found that having recently watched the movie with Keira Knightley and Colin Firth playing the leading role while I was halfway through this book helped significantly speed things up for me and clear any misinterpretation of said flowery language, etc. I feel that watching the movie helped me gain a greater appreciation of the book but I think that even if I had not watched the movie, I would've still loved the book. Maybe it's because I've grown to identify so much with Elizabeth Bennett's character that I so thoroughly enjoyed this book- especially towards the end. Someone recently told me that my life reminds them of a Jane Austen novel- particularly, Pride and Prejudice- and that I could be best described as a cross between Elizabeth Bennett and Jo from Little Women(not sure who that is, but will find out soon as that's next on my to-read list).
My favourite scene in both the book and the movie has to be the one in which Elizabeth's father calls her into the library after Darcy asks him for Elizabeth's hand in marriage. I suppose it's because I'm a daddy's girl- but I totally teared up at that part while watching the movie and almost teared up again when reading the scene in the book.
There are so many memorable quotes I'd like to add here, but I'm actually quite lazy to look them up right now. I'll probably revisit this review again and, hopefully, will then add my quotes. For now, I'd just like to express how much I've enjoyed this book and how glad I am that I gave it a second chance.
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