Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

[meganbmoore]

This book and its plot are so well known that any sort of synopsis would be rather superfluous.

You know, I knew going in that there would be far less focus on romance than in the adaptations I’ve seen (as near as I can tell, Austen’s main use for it is that her women be happy in their marriages, since marriage was the greatest security available

Comments

[meganbmoore]

I never understood the big deal about the house, precisely because of the time. Austen mostly seems to be concerned about security for her heroines, really.

[fmanalyst]

Security and that he not turn out to be an ass. That's the story of Charlotte Lucas - she married an ass for the sake of security.

[meganbmoore]

Yes, that too.

[bzoppa]

I went into P&P completely unspoiled. I absolutely hit the roof in the proposal scene, I had no idea it was coming. I think it was my first Jane Austen book.

[meganbmoore]

The first proposal?

[bzoppa]

Er, sorry, I guess it's the second? Mr. Collins was first.

When Darcy proposed at Netherfield. I knew he had a thing for her but I had no clue he was going to propose. I remember reading it really late at night in the study at college, by myself, and kind of running around the room in an OMG OMG OMG OMG-state.

[kakkobean]

I love this book so hard, I really do. Intelligent!girl giving Desireable!man a run for his ridiculousamountof!money, and then ending up not only growing but having a partner who would move the world for her. Gah. The amazing ♥
I also love "Hark a Vagrant"'s blatantly sexual parodies, because they are ridiculous.

[meganbmoore]

I'm not familiar with those parodies.

[kakkobean]

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=120
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=176
They make me snort because they're so...just pffff

[potatoko]

Oh wow, you haven't read "Hark! A Vagrant"? You're in for a treat, I bet you'll love it. Comic strips about history, historical fiction and ladies in history and historical fiction! It's genius. Those aren't even particularly good examples. Have you read the one about the bronte sisters?

"Dude Watching with the Brontes" http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=202

[oyceter]

I'm kind of amazed I managed to read this unspoiled! Yay growing up in Taiwan? ;)

But I remember it being on my shelf as one of those Boring Classics, and wondering why my English teacher said Jane Austen was his favorite writer. And one day in high school, I sat down to read it, and it was funny and romantic and witty!

[meganbmoore]

See, I didn't read Austen for years because when I heard of her in High School, it was right after reading Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, and I'd see Darcy mentioned as ubersuperromanticjustlikeHeathcliffandRochester!! and went "oh heck no!" And then I watched the Keira Knightley movie and was shocked to discover he was a decent human being, instead of needing to be run over by a carriage I have severe Bronte issues, and watched tons of adaptations before finally reading Emma last year.

[oyceter]

Hee! I think I read Wuthering Heights in seventh grade because all the books talk about it being some awesome romance, and I was like, "I hate everyone in this book! WTF?!"

I didn't read Jane Eyre until after reading several things based on it (Eyre Affair, Jenna Starborn, etc.), and to my complete unsurprise, I wanted to thwap Rochester. But to my surprise, I liked it a lot because so much of it was about Jane, whom I adore.

[meganbmoore]

I WANTED to like Jane when I read it on my own, and all the the times I was forced to read it for school (once in HS and twice in college) but I could never get over the idea that Jane didn't like other women, and taking Rochester back kept me from ever really getting into her.

[morwen_peredhil]

I, too, have a lot of sympathy for the annoying, silly, tactless Mrs. Bennet, because she is completely right that having all these daughters who will be pitched, near penniless, out of their home as soon as their father dies is a really huge deal, one that her much more likable husband chooses to ignore most of the time.

[meganbmoore]

Yeah. I actually ended up with a low opinion of Mr. Bennett.

[morwen_peredhil]

I like him, but he's really not doing his job as a father most of the time. At least Mrs. Bennet is trying, as counterproductive as her efforts tend to be.

[salimbol]

I still find him endearing - after all, he's where Lizzie got her sharp eye and sense of humour from, and the fact that my own father was fairly... indolent on the active parenting front is probably in his favour too ;-). But it doesn't disguise the fact that he's content to sit and twiddle his thumbs, when a bit of effort on his part might have made a difference to his daughters. He's basically given up without even trying, so he has to lose major points for that. Mrs Bennett, OTOH, loses points for her methods but not her ultimate aims :-).