Don’t Skip This: Pride and Prejudice

Remember that summer reading list in high school that you blew off? There were some pretty great titles you skipped and you’ve spent your adult life hearing references to them. What did you miss? And why are these titles still thrown around today? Are they really that good? Here’s your chance to redeem yourself: we’re taking a candid look at a lot of these books and building a case for finally picking up that book years later.

Pride and Prejudice

Author:
Jane Austen
Genre:
Romance
Length:
Just over 400 pages, depending on the edition.
Difficulty Level:
Late high school
Selling Point:
One of English literature’s most beloved romance stories since Romeo & Juliet.

The Gist:
Our protagonist for today’s entry is Elizabeth Bennet, the second of five sisters in a middle-class family. The story begins when Mr. Charles Bingley, his friend Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, and Bingley’s siblings all rent out the neighboring house at Netherfield. Mr. Bingley quickly becomes very popular among the locals, as he’s a wealthy and pleasant young bachelor who quickly attaches himself to Elizabeth’s beautiful older sister, Jane. Mr. Darcy is even wealthier, yet he’s so discourteous that no one wants anything to do with him, least of all Elizabeth Bennet.

I could elaborate on the rest of the plot, but describing all the various feuds, betrayals, secrets, discoveries, marriage proposals and love triangles among the immense cast of characters would require more words than this column will allow. So, to make a long story short, I’ll just link to this helpful diagram and say that in the end, Jane marries Mr. Bingley and Elizabeth marries Mr. Darcy.

Common Misconceptions:
This novel is indeed a piece of romantic fluff in many ways, but there’s still a fair bit of satire and social commentary going on under the surface. The difference is that unlike Jane Eyre, which commented on 19^th century social norms through overt proto-feminism and gothic imagery, Pride and Prejudice conveys its agenda in more implicit and humorous ways.

Take Elizabeth’s mother, for example. Mrs. Bennet is a woman who’s obsessed with marrying her daughters off to anyone with money and connections, no matter how unsuitable the match may be. Instead of making such a character overtly malicious (as Bronte might have done), Austen instead treats Mrs. Bennet as a silly, stupid comic relief. Mrs. Bennet never gets any kind of comeuppance for being so superficial, though she is made the butt of several jokes, usually from her dry-witted husband.

The novel also addresses the practice of intermarrying, as Elizabeth has to deal with a proposal from her idiotic toady of a cousin. Likewise, Darcy has been promised to his aunt’s sickly young nonentity of a daughter. The book makes it abundantly clear that neither pairing would make for a happy marriage in any way, so the message against incest is implied without being stated outright.

Put simply, this book depicts the lighter side of 19^th century satire. Instead of actively disparaging the Victorian standards of love and marriage, Austen shows how ridiculous those standards are by playing them for laughs. The result is subtle, but definitely there.

Is it still worth it?
The plot of this book is centered almost entirely on social etiquettes and expectations of the time. Given how obsolete those practices are, it may occasionally be difficult for modern readers to fully grasp what’s going on and why. Additionally, there’s a whole lot of talking in this book. Some conversations are so long and involve so many people that it’s often easy to lose track of who’s saying what.

What really makes this book enjoyable is its cast. The characters in this book are all very well-defined, and their banter is wonderfully solid. The interactions between Elizabeth and Darcy are especially entertaining, and Mr. Bennet’s wry remarks are always a joy to read.

…the plot is carried by dozens of enjoyable characters and a great amount of humor.

The social commentary may be outdated, but the satire is so implicit that the narrative doesn’t really suffer for it. Instead, the plot is carried by dozens of enjoyable characters and a great amount of humor.

Where can I find it? How much does it cost?
Online copies and eBook editions are both freely available, and any store that charges more than $7 for a paperback is trying to cheat its customers. That’s right: It’s public domain!