More Classics

Hey, guys!

I've been on a roll with the classics lately, so let's keep it going with Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I read this book last summer because my best friend recommended it to me because (duh) she's obsessed with it. She has shown me part of the movie with Collin Firth, but it's six hours long so I never saw the whole movie.

Anyway, if you've been reading my blog regularly and if you've read my post about The Call of the Wild by Jack London, you'll remember that as a kid, I would always try to read the classics but I never had the attention span to retain any of the story. Unlike the other two classics I reviewed, the first time I read Pride and Prejudice was last summer.

I will say that it is a little difficult to read because of the style of writing. This is primarily because the book was written in the late Eighteenth to early Nineteenth Century. This means that there are a lot of big words and a lot of long sentences that you kind of have to read and then translate into simpler terms. That's the way I think of it anyway. Aside from that, it's a pretty good story. And it's actually pretty funny, too.

All right, the story is about the Bennet family and their two eldest daughters. Since they are women, they will not inherit the home or property so in order for them to have ample support for their lives the goal of their silly, materialistic, fickle mother is to marry them off to rich men.

Jane Bennet, a really sweet girl, has her eye on Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth Bennet, proud and stubborn, makes a point of ignoring Mr. Darcy, who is also proud. To be fair, he did kind of insult her.

So, what does Mrs. Bennet do? She persuades Jane to pursue Mr. Bingley and pushes Elizabeth towards the option of marrying her moron of a cousin. And trash talks Mr. Darcy. Not that Elizabeth does otherwise. But once Mr. Darcy spends more time around Elizabeth, he realizes that first impressions aren't always correct, and attempts to court Elizabeth.

But she's not having that. She's stubborn, remember?

This novel is basically Mrs. Bennet's attempts to marry Jane off to Mr. Bingley (who's really a nice guy) and Mr. Darcy's attempts to court Elizabeth. And all the social niceties that get in the way. It's a good read, even if the language is a bit tedious. But I promise, if you have the patience, you'll get past that.

Happy reading!