Pride and Prejudice in Penguin Classics

Dec 24, 2017 Francisco rated it it was amazing

There are a lot of reasons to read Jane Austen. I've been reading her again because I wanted to study a little closer the way she chooses when to show and when to tell. Her books, and particularly Pride and Prejudice, are masterful examples of a narrator fully confident and in control. She is telling you a story and she will freely pick when to tell you how a character feels or what a character is thinking and when to let the character's own words and actions and gestures show you. And more than There are a lot of reasons to read Jane Austen. I've been reading her again because I wanted to study a little closer the way she chooses when to show and when to tell. Her books, and particularly Pride and Prejudice, are masterful examples of a narrator fully confident and in control. She is telling you a story and she will freely pick when to tell you how a character feels or what a character is thinking and when to let the character's own words and actions and gestures show you. And more than that, she is free to do so with any character at any time. There is something about her narrators that reminds me of freedom in restraint, of arbitrariness with purpose, or something like that. I also like the authorial compassion that sustains even the portrayals of the "jerks" in her novels and in this one, the people you end up admiring start off as jerks. And the willingness to do that, to not be overly solicitous of the reader's empathy is also a kind a courage one should aspire to. The truth is that although I start off with all kind of aspirations to learn about Austen's writing process, I end up wallowing unconsciously in the delight of her long, uncomplicated sentences, in her subtle humor and barely visible irony. And what joy to find a small sexual innuendo and think that I'm the only one that's ever seen it. I read recently an article by a scholar of Austen's works who happened to be a man and who recounted that women were often bewildered by his love for Austen. He couldn't understand why this would cause surprise and even a little resentment. I agree with him. If I were a woman, I would give Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice to every man I met and their reading the books and the degree of their appreciation would be strong signifier of where we should go from there. Within the constraints of the time in which Jane Austen wrote, which included the constraint of women, Jane Austen managed to give her women characters a spirit that we mistakenly call modern. I don't think that women need to be reminded of that spirit's perennial existence as much as men do. Her books are for humans, which is to say men and women, and what they create in the reader, male or female, is an inkling of how love is born and how maintained. ...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Nicholas Mcdowell rated it really liked it

It's an alright book. Even if it is basically the chick flick of all novels. It has some fine writing especially during the ball scenes. And I admit I caught myself rooting for Darcy and whenever others started falling in love. I'd re-read it. ...more

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