Part1: Chap. 1 thru 42

[Nicky]

Well, I jumped in and got caught up with the first section and hopefully by Sunday will be up to the next section. So far, it's fairly interesting but I don't find the writing anywhere near the level of Austen's. Although there are some clever moments and times when I laughed out loud. In a way I wish that it wasn't being touted as an update of Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps if it was just a novel and one read it and realized all the allusions it would be more interesting rather than examining the novel so closely.

I also don't care for the short chapters because there is too much left unsaid and not enough description. We barely know what is going on other than our familiarity with the original. However, that is obviously a choice that the author made and perhaps it is an allusion to the communication in modern life with Twitter, texting and the like. So much is left unsaid and open to interpretation.

And I agree with several others that so far, Mr. Darcy is the most faithful and the most interesting character. At the moment I'm more impressed with the thoughtful and astute comments of all of you than the novel!

[Abigail]

I’ve been following this discussion of chapter length with interest because it has always been my sense that the chapters of Pride and Prejudice, at least in volume I, tend to be quite short—a series of vignettes, more like scenes in a play than chapters of a novel. When I was adapting P&P, I tried at first to follow Austen’s chapter breaks but wound up combining a number of them so things didn’t feel so choppy. As P&P goes on, the chapters get longer. Perhaps Sittenfeld started out following the original and then decided she liked telling the story as a series of moments.

Have to say I’m not bothered by her choice. As I’ve mentioned before, I like how she has invested the story with a certain amount of mystery, and the brief, seemingly inconclusive, fragmentary chapters promote that mystery. The tension between who the characters appear to be and who we expect them to be (based on their originals) keeps me turning the pages—how will Mary become more Mary-like? Is Chip Bingley really that immature, or are we misunderstanding/misinterpreting his behavior? And so on.

[Louise Sparrow]

It occured to me too that the chapters in Pride and Prejudice are short, but so much more seemed to happen in them. The short chapters don't really bother me but some of them do seem ridiculous.

Did Chip come over to you as immature? I thought his behaviour seemed perfectly reasonable given the circumstances but then there was nothing there to endear me to Jane.

Nicky wrote: "So far, it's fairly interesting but I don't find the writing anywhere near the level of Austen's. Although there are some clever moments and times when I laughed out loud. In a way I wish that it wasn't being touted as an update of Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps if it was just a novel and one read it and realized all the allusions it would be more interesting rather than examining the novel so closely."

I agree completely Nicky, I do not believe this book would ever have achieved notoriety if it wasn't for its connection to Jane Austen's work however.

[Faith]

I'm on chapter 61 and I still don't feel Liz and Darcy are very well portrayed. I might recognize Chip or the younger Bennett sisters but overall they don't seem as true as I hoped. I do think Sittenfeld captured the essence of Mr.Bennett to a T. unfortunately he's the only one i'd say that about. I just can't see Liz dating a married man. And while I can't put my finger on it exactly, Darcy seems to me more Mr. Grey than Mr. Darcy.

[Leslie]

Another comment on chapter length. I'm reading an ebook version, and the chapter lengths or breaks within them aren't really that noticeable. Is anyone else reading an ebook?

[Gretchen]

I agree with many of the comments the characters are not very well portrayed. They seem immature and just letting the situation or circumstances they are in dictate how they act and they never seem to take control. I have no sympathy for Jane. I have to confess that having no sympathy for Jane and all the modern values that have been put into the story does go against my "Jane Austen purist sensibilities" . But the flow is good so I am going to continue to read to see how the author pulls the story together.