I have a hard time narrowing down my “favorites” to one favorite, but this book would probably be at the top of my list for my very favorite book of all time!!! I can’t count how many times I’ve read & re-read it!! And though I enjoy watching every movie version of it, none can ever compare to this original, the actual book by Jane Austen. It’s so full of character development, wonderful dialogue, and witty commentaries not only by Elizabeth Bennett but also by the author herself. This is the style I aspire to eventually imitate as a writer. I can’t get enough of it!!
I’m always intrigued by the Regency setting. Written as a contemporary novel, now it is the classic resource about life in the upper classes of English society during that time period. I hope my contemporary Christian novels will be indicative of life in the 2000s within conservative, fundamental, legalistic Christianity in the same way.
Elizabeth Bennett (sometimes called Eliza, sometimes called Lizzy) is one of the most complex and interesting characters ever created, in my opinion. Her balance between reason and vivacity, social graces and impudence is the epitome of the perfect character. And yet she is still very realistic, with flaws that influence the plot, such as her vanity and prejudice. I love her growth at the end, how she and Darcy make each other better in the end. This is the kind of character-building that I aspire to, though I don’t see how anyone could attain this standard.
And who could help but fall in love with Mr. Darcy, too, right along with Lizzy? There are many supporting characters to keep track of, but Austen does a good job of only bringing them up when necessary and then letting them fade into the background when not needed. I just realized through this reading (after 30 or more), one of the ways Austen handles so many extraneous characters is to keep them all in their own settings, for the most part. I love how the advancement of the plot is connected to the changes in Lizzy’s surroundings. From home at Longbourn, to Netherfield, to Rosings, to Pemberley, and finally back home to Longbourn, each change in scenery includes a change in people.
Austen writes with such wit and humor as I could never hope to emulate but I appreciate so much. Her tongue in cheek ridicule of Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennett, Miss Bingley, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and others, through both her descriptions as the author and through Lizzy’s commentaries, as well as the ridiculousness of their own speech, is masterfully done.
This book has many little morals and lessons to be gleaned but without condescension, which I try to emulate in my own writing.
I have too many favorite quotes to list them all, but here are a few:
1. “There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well… Every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, an of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”
2. “You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavor to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger security for happiness.”
3. “Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”
4. “What are young men to rocks and mountains?”
5. “It was plain that their company was by no means so acceptable as when she could get nobody else…”
6. “My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”
7. “We neither of us perform to strangers.”
Author
minnewman
3 years ago
I love these old Romance novels
Author
benderx2
3 years ago
Read this a long time ago, need to re-read.
Author
lauriewhite0120
3 years ago
An all time favorite.
Author
dfc0227
3 years ago
One of my all time favotites
Author
eahflautt
3 years ago
A wonderful story, the characters stay with you. The choices they make have an impact on you as a reader and you are hoping it works out for them. A classic, of course, but the characters are very fresh and modern, even today.
Author
jennifermitchellbibliolater
3 years ago
Who doesn’t love Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzpatrick Darcy?
Author
katgof3
3 years ago
Besides all the recommendations that tell you to read Jane Austen because her books are classic….the one thing I can tell you about this book is it is FUNNY! That’s right…funny! Elizabeth, Me. Darcy-he is a man that makes a woman swoon- are some of the most realistic characters I have come across! They are full of complicated emotions, snobbery, judgemental attitudes, forgiveness, love, and familial obligations! The language is a bit daunting at first…but once you engage and engross yourself into Ms. Austen’s world, you will wonder what took you so long to read Pride and Prejudice!
Author
margaretlynettesharp
3 years ago
Awesome! I never tire of re-reading this classic romance. The language is captivating; the characters are intriguing. Five stars.
Author
jenniferpletcher
3 years ago
I am probably one of that last people alive that has not read this book. I am not a big fan of old literature (I know – for shame!). To me it is boring, and I don’t particularly like the style of writing, so I generally avoid them. This one was…..okay. I know, I know. It is great literature and I should have loved it. It was silly. It is a comedy, yes, but so SILLY. I am going to watch the movie, in hopes that it ties everything together. I found myself skimming several parts where it just droned on and on with fluffy wording.
I don’t know. Don’t count it out. There were parts that I really enjoyed and read deeply. It ended well, which helped a lot.
Author
denise
3 years ago
This is my favorite book of all time! You have to read it slowly and savor all the dialogue and descriptions of characters. I have reread it many times. You would think that life would have been boring for women in the time period depicted but the author has added thoughts and feelings to their actions so that the plot moves along and keeps you interested. The best one -liners were added to the movies made of this book.
Author
sgoggin
3 years ago
There’s a good reason why this book is as popular today as it was 100 years ago!
Author
nhh1501
3 years ago
My favorite book ever…. love, love loved it!
Author
anon
3 years ago
Classic
Author
littlefrog7
3 years ago
Favorite book and classic I think everyone should read!
Author
chrijeff50
3 years ago
I found it boring. But then, I don’t believe in LU-U-U-UV!
Author
gromot2000
3 years ago
Wonderful….beautifully written…..a classic from a bygone era that still enchants one today…..
Author
victoriamelitazammit
3 years ago
Early on in the first year of undergrad, I realized that there are two kinds of English majors: the ones who love Pride and Prejudice and hate Jane Eyre, and the ones who think the opposite. At first, I didn’t think I subscribed to either though; both books seemed incredibly boring. I remember reading the first page of P&P and immediately just groaning because oh my god how sexist could this get.
And then I realized that the entire thing was just one big Festival of Irony, and then I had my fun with it.
If you’ve never read P&P, I have no idea what you’re doing here. But, I’ll indulge.
Pride and Prejudice is the story of a young lady named Elizabeth Bennet, as well as her sister Jane, and three men who enter their lives and change things up a little bit. There’s more than just these five characters, I assure you; there’s an entire cast of family members, friends of family, acquaintances, aristocrats, army officials, and a whole lot more. The story is rife with people judging other people, and people being mean about other people, and people falling in and out of love with other people, and people marrying other people for money, and people lying about other people, and people being so so so sarcastic.
The whole point of the novel is how very ironic everything is. It’s literally a master class in irony – Lizzie uses it, her father uses it, Darcy uses it. They all speak to each other in tones of sarcasm and irony, and literally nobody is taking anyone else seriously unless it really matters. From the first line of the novel – ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife.’ – the book’s tone is set. The entire thing is Austen criticizing her society for being so obsessed with appearances and other people’s face value and never looking at what’s really going on underneath it all. We see Lizzie go through it, we see Bingley go through it, we even see Darcy go through it. Everybody has their moments of clarity, where they finally realize that they’ve been too proud and prejudiced against everyone else to really appreciate what other people are offering them.
(The title of the book only made sense to me about a year after I read it.)
The book’s main take-away message is that nobody is ever what they really seem – from the nicest guy holidaying in the village, to the broodiest guy standing in the corner of the ball, everybody is hiding some part of themselves from other people. But if you just dig a little deeper, you can weed out the Wickhams from the Darcys, and have yourself a much easier time in life.
Final rating: 4/5. An actual classic. Please read this.
Author
hollyjwood
3 years ago
I mean, it’s Jane Austen. This book is a classic and deserves at least one read in your lifetime. Elizabeth Bennett is a brilliant character and one of my all-time favorites.
Author
jamesjcudney
3 years ago
So it starts off with this zombie who is thirsty for… oh wait, wrong book. I thought this had zombies in the title. I must be confused. Oh, there are 2 of them. Why would someone do that? What do zombies have to do with marriage and love and the idea of ideas? Is this the book where the women in a lion’s den dislike the men? Oh, I’m so lost today with these older reviews. JUST KIDDING!
3 out of 5 stars to Pride and Prejudice, a remarkable novel written in the early 19th century by the wonderful Jane Austen. I read this when I was around 20 years old, as part of one of my English courses. I like the book. I enjoy the characters. But I’m not as big of a fan as most people who say they like this book. I’ve also never seen any movie, film or tv series versions of it, nor would I dare pick up the one that includes the zombies. There are 2 things preventing me: (1) I wasn’t enamored with this one enough to want to re-read something very different and (2) I’ve never been a fan of zombies. Vampires, yes. Werewolves, yes. Witches, totally. But for some reasons, zombies don’t do it for me. I did like the first two movies in the Resident Evil series, but that’s just because she’s a badass! Why am I still talking about zombies. Let’s move to marriage, a more appropriate topic, given it’s a central theme in the book.
I am not married. For a while, it wasn’t legal for me to marry the person I’d want to marry. It is now. But I’m still not married. And I have been in a relationship for nearly six years. My point… so off topic in this one… is that marriage has never been important to me. And so this book had some interesting parts to it that I both agreed with and had some conflicts with. I believe in doing what’s best for the two people involved in the relationship, not what society says is the acceptable thing to do. I also find marriage to be something more private between the married couple, and it would be weird to stand up in front of a whole room of people and say some words, have some sort of institutional approach and then continue on with our lives.
I liked the pairing of Elizabeth and Darcy, but it wasn’t a romantic and wonderful turn of events for me. It felt more like a societal commentary of relationships, expectations and courtship. As a result, I focused less on “should they be together” and more on “what’s the meaning under all these words.” I liked the book, probably give it a 3.4999999, which unfortunately rounds down to a 3.
Of all the classics, it’s not one of my favorites, but I’d give it another chance under the right circumstances. Just would want to maybe see a visual interpretation first, perhaps to drive my imagination and provoke some different thoughts for the next read.
By janeausten
I have a hard time narrowing down my “favorites” to one favorite, but this book would probably be at the top of my list for my very favorite book of all time!!! I can’t count how many times I’ve read & re-read it!! And though I enjoy watching every movie version of it, none can ever compare to this original, the actual book by Jane Austen. It’s so full of character development, wonderful dialogue, and witty commentaries not only by Elizabeth Bennett but also by the author herself. This is the style I aspire to eventually imitate as a writer. I can’t get enough of it!!
I’m always intrigued by the Regency setting. Written as a contemporary novel, now it is the classic resource about life in the upper classes of English society during that time period. I hope my contemporary Christian novels will be indicative of life in the 2000s within conservative, fundamental, legalistic Christianity in the same way.
Elizabeth Bennett (sometimes called Eliza, sometimes called Lizzy) is one of the most complex and interesting characters ever created, in my opinion. Her balance between reason and vivacity, social graces and impudence is the epitome of the perfect character. And yet she is still very realistic, with flaws that influence the plot, such as her vanity and prejudice. I love her growth at the end, how she and Darcy make each other better in the end. This is the kind of character-building that I aspire to, though I don’t see how anyone could attain this standard.
And who could help but fall in love with Mr. Darcy, too, right along with Lizzy? There are many supporting characters to keep track of, but Austen does a good job of only bringing them up when necessary and then letting them fade into the background when not needed. I just realized through this reading (after 30 or more), one of the ways Austen handles so many extraneous characters is to keep them all in their own settings, for the most part. I love how the advancement of the plot is connected to the changes in Lizzy’s surroundings. From home at Longbourn, to Netherfield, to Rosings, to Pemberley, and finally back home to Longbourn, each change in scenery includes a change in people.
Austen writes with such wit and humor as I could never hope to emulate but I appreciate so much. Her tongue in cheek ridicule of Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennett, Miss Bingley, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and others, through both her descriptions as the author and through Lizzy’s commentaries, as well as the ridiculousness of their own speech, is masterfully done.
This book has many little morals and lessons to be gleaned but without condescension, which I try to emulate in my own writing.
I have too many favorite quotes to list them all, but here are a few:
1. “There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well… Every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, an of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”
2. “You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavor to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger security for happiness.”
3. “Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”
4. “What are young men to rocks and mountains?”
5. “It was plain that their company was by no means so acceptable as when she could get nobody else…”
6. “My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”
7. “We neither of us perform to strangers.”
I love these old Romance novels
Read this a long time ago, need to re-read.
An all time favorite.
One of my all time favotites
A wonderful story, the characters stay with you. The choices they make have an impact on you as a reader and you are hoping it works out for them. A classic, of course, but the characters are very fresh and modern, even today.
Who doesn’t love Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzpatrick Darcy?
Besides all the recommendations that tell you to read Jane Austen because her books are classic….the one thing I can tell you about this book is it is FUNNY! That’s right…funny! Elizabeth, Me. Darcy-he is a man that makes a woman swoon- are some of the most realistic characters I have come across! They are full of complicated emotions, snobbery, judgemental attitudes, forgiveness, love, and familial obligations! The language is a bit daunting at first…but once you engage and engross yourself into Ms. Austen’s world, you will wonder what took you so long to read Pride and Prejudice!
Awesome! I never tire of re-reading this classic romance. The language is captivating; the characters are intriguing. Five stars.
I am probably one of that last people alive that has not read this book. I am not a big fan of old literature (I know – for shame!). To me it is boring, and I don’t particularly like the style of writing, so I generally avoid them. This one was…..okay. I know, I know. It is great literature and I should have loved it. It was silly. It is a comedy, yes, but so SILLY. I am going to watch the movie, in hopes that it ties everything together. I found myself skimming several parts where it just droned on and on with fluffy wording.
I don’t know. Don’t count it out. There were parts that I really enjoyed and read deeply. It ended well, which helped a lot.
This is my favorite book of all time! You have to read it slowly and savor all the dialogue and descriptions of characters. I have reread it many times. You would think that life would have been boring for women in the time period depicted but the author has added thoughts and feelings to their actions so that the plot moves along and keeps you interested. The best one -liners were added to the movies made of this book.
There’s a good reason why this book is as popular today as it was 100 years ago!
My favorite book ever…. love, love loved it!
Classic
Favorite book and classic I think everyone should read!
I found it boring. But then, I don’t believe in LU-U-U-UV!
Wonderful….beautifully written…..a classic from a bygone era that still enchants one today…..
Early on in the first year of undergrad, I realized that there are two kinds of English majors: the ones who love Pride and Prejudice and hate Jane Eyre, and the ones who think the opposite. At first, I didn’t think I subscribed to either though; both books seemed incredibly boring. I remember reading the first page of P&P and immediately just groaning because oh my god how sexist could this get.
And then I realized that the entire thing was just one big Festival of Irony, and then I had my fun with it.
If you’ve never read P&P, I have no idea what you’re doing here. But, I’ll indulge.
Pride and Prejudice is the story of a young lady named Elizabeth Bennet, as well as her sister Jane, and three men who enter their lives and change things up a little bit. There’s more than just these five characters, I assure you; there’s an entire cast of family members, friends of family, acquaintances, aristocrats, army officials, and a whole lot more. The story is rife with people judging other people, and people being mean about other people, and people falling in and out of love with other people, and people marrying other people for money, and people lying about other people, and people being so so so sarcastic.
The whole point of the novel is how very ironic everything is. It’s literally a master class in irony – Lizzie uses it, her father uses it, Darcy uses it. They all speak to each other in tones of sarcasm and irony, and literally nobody is taking anyone else seriously unless it really matters. From the first line of the novel – ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife.’ – the book’s tone is set. The entire thing is Austen criticizing her society for being so obsessed with appearances and other people’s face value and never looking at what’s really going on underneath it all. We see Lizzie go through it, we see Bingley go through it, we even see Darcy go through it. Everybody has their moments of clarity, where they finally realize that they’ve been too proud and prejudiced against everyone else to really appreciate what other people are offering them.
(The title of the book only made sense to me about a year after I read it.)
The book’s main take-away message is that nobody is ever what they really seem – from the nicest guy holidaying in the village, to the broodiest guy standing in the corner of the ball, everybody is hiding some part of themselves from other people. But if you just dig a little deeper, you can weed out the Wickhams from the Darcys, and have yourself a much easier time in life.
Final rating: 4/5. An actual classic. Please read this.
I mean, it’s Jane Austen. This book is a classic and deserves at least one read in your lifetime. Elizabeth Bennett is a brilliant character and one of my all-time favorites.
So it starts off with this zombie who is thirsty for… oh wait, wrong book. I thought this had zombies in the title. I must be confused. Oh, there are 2 of them. Why would someone do that? What do zombies have to do with marriage and love and the idea of ideas? Is this the book where the women in a lion’s den dislike the men? Oh, I’m so lost today with these older reviews. JUST KIDDING!
3 out of 5 stars to Pride and Prejudice, a remarkable novel written in the early 19th century by the wonderful Jane Austen. I read this when I was around 20 years old, as part of one of my English courses. I like the book. I enjoy the characters. But I’m not as big of a fan as most people who say they like this book. I’ve also never seen any movie, film or tv series versions of it, nor would I dare pick up the one that includes the zombies. There are 2 things preventing me: (1) I wasn’t enamored with this one enough to want to re-read something very different and (2) I’ve never been a fan of zombies. Vampires, yes. Werewolves, yes. Witches, totally. But for some reasons, zombies don’t do it for me. I did like the first two movies in the Resident Evil series, but that’s just because she’s a badass! Why am I still talking about zombies. Let’s move to marriage, a more appropriate topic, given it’s a central theme in the book.
I am not married. For a while, it wasn’t legal for me to marry the person I’d want to marry. It is now. But I’m still not married. And I have been in a relationship for nearly six years. My point… so off topic in this one… is that marriage has never been important to me. And so this book had some interesting parts to it that I both agreed with and had some conflicts with. I believe in doing what’s best for the two people involved in the relationship, not what society says is the acceptable thing to do. I also find marriage to be something more private between the married couple, and it would be weird to stand up in front of a whole room of people and say some words, have some sort of institutional approach and then continue on with our lives.
I liked the pairing of Elizabeth and Darcy, but it wasn’t a romantic and wonderful turn of events for me. It felt more like a societal commentary of relationships, expectations and courtship. As a result, I focused less on “should they be together” and more on “what’s the meaning under all these words.” I liked the book, probably give it a 3.4999999, which unfortunately rounds down to a 3.
Of all the classics, it’s not one of my favorites, but I’d give it another chance under the right circumstances. Just would want to maybe see a visual interpretation first, perhaps to drive my imagination and provoke some different thoughts for the next read.