24 February, 2002
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
1813
399 pp
Pride and Prejudice is, in my opinion, Jane Austen's best novel. Like all her works, it's concerned with love and marriage among the English gentry during the early 1800s. The central quesiton is, "What makes for a good match?" It is answered by showing us a wide variety of marriages and romantic pairings, both good and bad.
One of the things I like about this book is that the central romance, that between Elizabeth and Darcy, is not one of the stereotypical "love at first sight" or "one true love" romantic plots. Elizabeth and Darcy start off with terrible first impressions of each other. He looks down on her as a person of little fortune and poor social connections (relative to his own). She considers him extremely snobbish and disagreeable. It's only with increased acquaintance and interaction with each other that they develop a positive relationship. At the beginning of the novel, they're terribly suited for each other. By the end, they're a perfect match. This change is the result of the characters coming to know and understand each other, not because either of them undergoes a huge change in personality or circumstances.
There's more than just romance in this book; there's a lot of humor, too. Elizabeth had to deal with embarassing family members, a pushy old dame, sychophantic clergy, hypocritical snobbery, and two of the worst marriage proposals in fiction.
In addition to being a wonderful book, Pride and Prejudice has the best "live action" adaptation of any book I've read. The 1996 miniseries by A&E and the BBC is completely faithful to the book, and an entertaining production in and of itself.