View Poll Results: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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  • * A bookworm's nightmare!

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    1 5.26%
  • *** Finished but no reason to skip meals.

    2 10.53%
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Thread: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

  1. #1
    Book Novice Thomas Novosel's Avatar
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    Red face Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

    This is the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr.Darcy, and how they came to love one another. After a multitude of conversations, letters and gossip between their families, and others within the country. The rich Mr.Darcy begins to feel an attachment, and then a love, for Ms.Bennet. However Mr.Bennet is too proud of himself, his connections (his friends), family and wealth to consider being "With" Lizzy. And she upon noticing this pride, and how ridiculously full of himself he is, she becomes negatively biased to him. So this is the story of Mr.Darcy trying to earn Elizabeth's affectionl...

    This classic written by Jane Austen in 1813, is at times slow to read, and some of the language used is hard to understand. To truly enjoy this book you have to take a full notice of the conversations between these characters. Becuase that is what this book is, conversation between characters, there is not a single action-packed chapter or page in this book, gladly...it does not need to be. I have read recently that this book is considered by many a "comedy of manners," and let me be the first to say, this is not a joke book, and most of the humor in the book comes in the form of irony between what the reader knows has occured, and what the characters say has occured. It is an enjoying read altogether, it seems to be the kind of book where you read it slowly and alittle at a time.

    Story----- It's a love story in a world full of many traditions, standards, and customs to which its members apply...image is everything in this book, which is why it's romance must slowwwwwlyyy...unfold.
    Characters----- Some are good, some not so good. When I look back on the book it seems the most memorable character was Elizabeth Bennet, becuase she expresses her interests and opinion, but still is elegant about it.
    Language----- The words are big, but after the first three chapters (about 9-11 pages) you begin to find it easier to read.

    The book is obviously not a page turner, but to those kind of people who like evolving romances,... than this is probably for you, but keep a dictionary handy if your below a 12th grade reading level.

    8/10
    "Bleak times beckon dark decisions..." -Thomas Novosel 3/24/2012

  2. #2
    Registered User kev67's Avatar
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    This is the only Jane Austen book that I've read. I was expecting something quite stodgy, but it was quite an easy read - a page turner in fact. I liked Lizzie Bennet. She did not need to go an assertiveness course.

  3. #3
    Original Poster Buh4Bee's Avatar
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    I've never read it, but I have seen some version on Masterpiece Theater. I also thought it would be boring. Good to know it is not.

  4. #4
    Registered User kelby_lake's Avatar
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    The BBC series is a must watch At all costs, avoid the travesty that is the 2005 film version.

  5. #5
    All are at the crossroads qimissung's Avatar
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    Actuasally, I know this is heresy, but I like the 2005 version, almost as well as the mini-series. But the book is the best one of them all. I guess it's my favorite Austen. Maybe you could read it this summer, Buh4Bee. It's a treat, it really is.
    "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
    "Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai
    "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by qimissung View Post
    Actuasally, I know this is heresy, but I like the 2005 version, almost as well as the mini-series. But the book is the best one of them all. I guess it's my favorite Austen. Maybe you could read it this summer, Buh4Bee. It's a treat, it really is.
    Yes it is heresy but I won't send the boys round on this occasion. Yes I've just finished re-reading this and was an absolute delight.

    Currently re-watching the BBC Sense and Sensibility (2008) which is likewise outstanding, beautifully set. I have been dreaming of that cottage on the hill. If you have not seen that it comes highly recommended.

  7. #7
    King of Dreams MorpheusSandman's Avatar
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    It's a masterpiece, though I still prefer Emma for its impeccable craftsmanship and Mansfield Park for its attention paid to the "outsider". What I love most about P&P is how Austen manipulates the reader's perspective through EB's gaze and mind. We see and think what she sees and thinks, and when her epistemological foundation is shaken, so is ours. In S&S Austen really set out to make a clean distinction between her titular representatives, but in P&P she set out to obscure exactly which appellation belongs to which character, and it's quite brilliant to watch.
    "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." --Carl Gustav Jung

    "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due." --Neil Gaiman; The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists

    "I'm on my way, from misery to happiness today. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" --The Proclaimers

  8. #8
    All are at the crossroads qimissung's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MorpheusSandman View Post
    It's a masterpiece, though I still prefer Emma for its impeccable craftsmanship and Mansfield Park for its attention paid to the "outsider". What I love most about P&P is how Austen manipulates the reader's perspective through EB's gaze and mind. We see and think what she sees and thinks, and when her epistemological foundation is shaken, so is ours. In S&S Austen really set out to make a clean distinction between her titular representatives, but in P&P she set out to obscure exactly which appellation belongs to which character, and it's quite brilliant to watch.
    And that is why she is so brilliant.

    I have to admit I love the movie "Emma" because it is really funny (I have read the novel, but it's been awhile), and there's something so fresh and bouyant about P&P, too.

    I haven't read "Mansfield Park" but I know I will like Fanny (actually I started it but never finished it). I feel a kinship with her, our personalities are similar. I find it interesting that hardly anybody ever seems to like her. Even then a more sociable, outgoing, assertive personality was approved of. I always think Jane Austen modeled Fanny on her own sister, who was apparently rather shy and retiring.
    Last edited by qimissung; 05-02-2012 at 12:34 PM.
    "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
    "Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai
    "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka

  9. #9
    King of Dreams MorpheusSandman's Avatar
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    Well, Fanny is the goody two-shoes who is always wanting to curtail the fun of the other characters in the novel, but I think everyone doesn't read beyond what they see as her being a personal fuddy-duddy. She was abandoned by her parents and sent to live with wealthy relatives (as it says early on), and I think that it's meant to be clear that the attitude that action fostered in her was that she had to be perfect so she wouldn't be abandoned again. Meanwhile, the children of that family have grown up wild because they feel privileged. As I see it, it's a novel about how we feel free only when we take our safety for granted, but when we've had that safety stripped away, we impose restrictions on our lives to regain that sense of safety.
    Last edited by MorpheusSandman; 05-05-2012 at 04:48 AM.
    "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." --Carl Gustav Jung

    "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due." --Neil Gaiman; The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists

    "I'm on my way, from misery to happiness today. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" --The Proclaimers

  10. #10
    All are at the crossroads qimissung's Avatar
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    Brilliantly done, Morpheus!
    "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
    "Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai
    "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka

  11. #11
    Registered User prendrelemick's Avatar
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    Fanny Price is just no good as a modern heroine. We like them plucky and lively these days - like Elizabeth Bennett in fact. Her miserable and serious demenor seems to affect Austin herself. It is as though proto-victorian values have overwhelmed and stultified her natural lively instincts. The moral of the story, that if you are good and do nothing and be patient, every thing will come to you (via the male hero,) is a message that later heroins of Victorian meladrama take on board and is also not for a modern audience. Fanny is in many ways a pre-cursor of the very moral Jane Eyre, but without her passion.
    ay up

  12. #12
    King of Dreams MorpheusSandman's Avatar
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    Fanny isn't a good modern heroine if we think we're supposed to identify and agree with her, rather than understand why she is the way she is, and what that says about the social, moral, and personal world she inhabits. There are people who read and demand a kind of character identification, but I am not one of them.
    "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." --Carl Gustav Jung

    "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due." --Neil Gaiman; The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists

    "I'm on my way, from misery to happiness today. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" --The Proclaimers

  13. #13
    All are at the crossroads qimissung's Avatar
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    In fact, she is an intuitive feeling person, if you want to get into the Meyers Briggs thing. And, yes, they tend to be passive. It is interesting to look at the language we use to describe people and the values we ascribe to these characterizations.

    Fanny was not asking these others to wait, as she did, nor did she know, or possibly believe that simply waiting would bring her what she wanted. I get the feeling (I started the book but didn't finish) that she would like to be more of an agent in her own life but she was thrust to the outside of the action before she could take stock of herself.Nor did she know how to, being quiet. It was her task to learn that. Why is being quiet always associated with being miserable?

    She intuited that the interlopers did not bring with them things that would broaden their world but things that brought danger to it. It was up to her adopted family to learn to listen.

    One of my main problems with the book is the city versus country theme. Why is it that the city is always presented as dangerous? I felt this was somewhat limited on Austen's part.

    I myself have often had difficulty enjoying books in which I did not identify with the character. I think to a degree I am still there, but working my way to a place beyond that. I wonder, though, if part of why Fanny is seen as merely drab is that Edmund is not as dashing as Rochester. Jane Eyre is more gothic than Mansfield Park. Mansfield Park is a different kind of novel altogether and neither Fanny or Edmund have the darker, more intriguing characteristics inherent in that genre. They are, I suppose, more realistic, and are therefore, more suited to a novel that is exploring social change.

    Edmund was the real wet blanket if you ask me.
    "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
    "Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai
    "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka

  14. #14
    King of Dreams MorpheusSandman's Avatar
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    The comforting country VS dangerous city motif is one of the oldest in the arts and goes back to the anxiety brought about by technological advancement. One can see it depicted crystal clear in the art of pretty much every century, even the 20th (ever seen the silent film masterpiece, Sunrise by FW Murnau? It literally titles its female character who leads the married farmer astray as "the woman from the city").
    "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." --Carl Gustav Jung

    "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due." --Neil Gaiman; The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists

    "I'm on my way, from misery to happiness today. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" --The Proclaimers

  15. #15
    I really, really like P&P and it also was the first Austen novel I read. I pick it up again, and again, sometimes just for a few pages, may favourite is "Northanger Abbey" though. I just really like the teasy Mr. Tilney.
    Last edited by Cosmopolis; 05-14-2012 at 05:13 AM.

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