Pride and Prejudice is the first 19th century classic I've read since Wuthering Heights when I was studying my English A Level. I chose to read it first as it is the one I've heard mentioned most often, there are countless blogs, books groups and forums dedicated to it. Mr Darcy is somewhat of a cult icon and many women swoon over him. He is often referenced by female characters in fiction as being the ideal man. He has over 8,000 likes on Facebook. I might be missing something but I don't see what all the fuss is about.
Things I liked
Elizabeth! She's a girl I can relate to, she's independent and speaks her own mind. She doesn't fall at the feet of every man that insists she marries him and I like that.
The romance between Jane and Bingley! It became a bit of a 'will they, won't they' scenario and I did enjoy learning more about the circumstances in which they were separated.
Things I didn't like
The language! I know it was written in the 1800s but the sentence structure was really hard to get my head around, I felt like they were channelling Yoda at some points. Many of the words had a completely different meaning to how they are used in the twenty-first century and although I understood what they were getting at, it was an adjustment.
The mother! What an awful woman. Only interested in how soon she can marry her daughters and how much money they can marry into. I felt sorry for Mr Bennett for having to put up with such a women.
Verdict
It was a little average for me. Considering it took me over two weeks to read it and how often I zoned out and had to read back again I can't say it really gripped me. It wasn't until the half way point that we got to find out more about the different sisters character traits and to witness Mr Bennetts' humour, I feel that they should have been a staple from the beginning. Had the language been a bit more modern and a lot of the waffle omitted it probably would be quite a good love story but it didn't do it for me.
3/5
