Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Book Review

Summary:

"Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England."

My review:

⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

This has to be one of the most well-written books I've ever read, and if I could write like this I would never stop. I've always thought of classics as slow, dreary, plotless, and having nothing that could make me enjoy them. And though I have stuck to that opinion when it came to most of them, Pride and Prejudice proved to be very enjoyable to read. I always feel highly unqualified to review classics, but here are some of my thoughts anyway.

The characters were such as we can see around us even today- the pompous self-assuming relations, nosy neighbours, and sisters and friends to confide everything in. Elizabeth's relationships with everyone were brought out well, as were her thoughts on any matter. The cause of fixedness or alteration of any of her emotions made sense to the reader. She was the main character, yet not every part of the story was about her, and I liked that the whole family was central to the storyline. Her and Mr. Darcy's story began after almost half the book, though they had met before, and I liked how he was in and out of her thoughts the whole time.

The author always accounted for all the characters, which I liked, since it would have been so easy to just skip over Mary or Catherine, or let some characters fade into the background after their part was over. But she kept the entire society involved in the story, if only when the family received letters or an occasional visit from them. The climax of the book was written nicely, and all loose ends were tied up. I would have liked to read more conversations between Darcy and Elizabeth, like the one written at the end. Though there wasn't much interaction between Jane and Bingley that Elizabeth was a part of, their love for each other was shown well through her observations.

Though I had found the long-winded sentences a chore to read, I ended up really liking them. The author expressed all her thoughts with great clarity, and it was easy to understand exactly what she wanted to say. I had not thought it was possible to put some of those specific feelings into words, but the author managed to make each character speak precisely what was on their mind, and still make it concise. At first, I had started marking the sentences I liked, but soon I felt like I would end up highlighting the whole book.

The part about Lydia and Wickham bored me for as long as it went on. I understand its prominence in the story- to show Lydia's folly that Darcy spoke of, to add the "disadvantageous connection" of Wickham to their family, prove Darcy's love for Elizabeth, and simply as a plot twist- but I couldn't help be impatient for Elizabeth's story to progress. There were pages and pages about Lydia, whose presence or absence I couldn't bring myself to care about, which were perhaps the only part I didn't enjoy.

This book gave a thorough and well-expressed picture of their lives at that time, and I can see why it is called a classic. Though I doubt I will pick up any other one soon, I am glad I decided to give this one a try.