Review: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Title: Pride and Prejudice

Author: Jane Austen

My rating: 4.25/5

Goodreads rating: 4.23/5

Genre: Classic, Romance

Summary (Goodreads):

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s witty comedy of manners–one of the most popular novels of all time–that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues.

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 Review:

I have finally read Pride and Prejudice! Yes! This is a book that most people have read and loved and recommended religiously. I didn’t really let this weigh on me as I read though, I kept a surprisingly neutral and open mind and I’m glad I did. Considering that I DNFed this book about three years ago because of the writing, the writing was the thing I loved about this book!

Plot:

Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennet as she tries to survive the social expectations of being an unmarried woman while trying to decipher the mysterious Mr Darcy.

Sometimes while reading it felt like nothing was happening but there were many places in the novel when I was shocked or deeply captivated. With the novel being over 300 pages (but with my edition having pages full of tiny writing) you would think that the story went rather quickly, but while reading it felt more like I was taking a long stroll. I enjoyed reading about Elizabeth’s life and her and her family’s struggles with class, economics and marriage. The subject of the latter is a really huge part of this book- it’s the foundation of the whole story really- but I never got bored of the never ending not conversations about it. The characters thoughts and opinions on marriage were really interesting and I liked reading about them as each character has a different view on it.

Writing:

Jane Austen’s writing is brilliant! I can’t believe I DNF this book all those years ago because I thought the writing was hard to follow. On the contrary, the writing in this book is quite easy to read and though there were some words that I have never encountered in there, the majority of the writing was simple. I loved how she wrote each character quite distinctive and how elegantly she info dumped! Seriously, though the passages were long and gave loads of information to the reader without anything breaking it up with any dialogue, I was actually interested in reading the back stories! I loved knowing more about their characters and how the extra information affected the plot. It has to be said though, that some passages were too long and I often got lost within them.

Characters:

I really liked Elizabeth! She rebelled again the social expectation in many ways and it was refreshing for her to speak so bluntly about certain situations. She was rather honest in her thoughts were she never beat around the bush about her feelings. She was in no way annoying which was also welcomed. 

I’m kind of surprised that I wasn’t on the Mr Darcy swooning train. He seemed like a normal guy, not very extraordinary in much. Thus I couldn’t really careless about the Elizabeth/Darcy couple.

I liked the partnership of Jane and Mr Bingley which was a sweet one. Mrs Bennet was a fabulous characer and I loved reading her somewhat realistic and comedic character traits.

What I liked:

• The writing was simplistic but engadging 
• The main protagonist was great to read about
• The social commentary throughout the book

What I disliked:

• The Elizabeth/Darcy relationship wasn’t as WOW as I thought it was going to be
• The lengthy passages, though nice, were sometimes too lengthy 

Verdit: I really liked this novel! This is my first Austen novel and I can definitely say I will be reading more as the writing is so wonderful! The characters were distinct and intriguing to read about. I recommend this to everyone!

 -Astra

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