This is one review that I am particularly happy to write. No, not because it's one of my favorite books, but because I was finally able to remove "Pride and Prejudice" from my "To Read" list. Since my high school days, roughly 12 years ago, I have attempted to make it though this book 5 or 6 times, and have never made it more than 10% in. I just can't read Jane Austen. It's nothing personal against her, really. I'm not a huge fan of Brit Lit, but she does seem to catch my attention less than most.
So why continue on this quest to read it? Well, honestly, I was just determined to figure out this world-wide obsession with Mr. Darcy.
All I remembered of Mr. Darcy was that he was an arrogant prick who didn't seem any different than the British guy that I recently dated, who has now soured me on all Brits. So the quest began to read Pride and Prejudice all the way through.
If you aren't familiar with the plot line, the story is about a middle-class family, The Bennets, which is comprised of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their 5 daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine and Lydia. Mrs. Bennet's sole goal in life is to marry her daughters off to affluent gentleman, and the she goes about this task with obnoxious zeal, much to the occasional embarassment of her two eldest daughters.
Jane is the first Bennet daughter to make a "catch", in the form of Mr. Bingley, a rich, handsome and attractive man who has just moved to town. With him, he brings his close friend, Mr. Darcy, who just as I remembered is a wealthy, yet arrogant, stuck-up and extremely unpleasant person, who much to his own chagrine finds himself falling for the lower-class-than-himself, Lizzy Bennet.
The story then follows his attempts at both avoiding and pursueing the extemely independent, vivacious and opinionated Lizzy, as well as lightly following along with the relationships of the other Bennet girls.
I will say that once I got about a quarter into the story, it started to pick up for me, and by the middle, I actually found it interesting enough to breeze through. However, by the end, I still didn't understand the Darcy-mania. Yes, he's a bit more humble and kind, but that's all the credit I'll give him.
I think I'd like to a see a modern-day film adaptation of the story, because it definitely lends itself to a "Mean Girls" type film, and it would actually be pretty funny.
No comments:
Post a Comment