Pride and Prejudice – Review

It’s been half a year since I have last posted! The last semester was super stressful and during summer break, I spent most of the time traveling, writing papers and revising. I have, however, read a couple of books (just haven’t had the time to write reviews). But now, after finishing Pride and Prejudice, I feel like I really need to get things off my chest. So here are my thoughts!

I read Pride and Prejudice about five or six years ago and did not enjoy it very much. To be fair, I was about 14 or 15 years old – so after now loving it so much, I shall trace it back to my young age.

I never thought of reading it again, but one of my best friends was currently reading it and another told me that Evermore and Folklore by Taylor Swift are inspired by Jane Austen, and especially by Pride and Prejudice. Since I am a huge Taylor Swift fan and especially adore the heartfelt and deep (and underrated!) lyrics in her two recent albums, I felt the need to give the book another change. And I’m beyond happy I did because I enjoyed every page, every sentence of it. I have been waking up super early for the past week (6:45am for some reason) and the first thing I did was make a cup of Earl Grey and sit down and devour this book. Which accounts for a lot because I usually check my phone for like half an hour.

The plot was, as I knew it would be, very old-fashioned. The goal of every young, respectable woman was to marry and find an equally respectable husband. And while I’m not super interested in reading of women’s choice of husband, the latest gossip and whether one has climbed up the social latter or not, I tremendously enjoyed Elizabeth’s story of falling in love with Mr. Darcy. Some scenes were, for my taste, stretched a bit too far and not entirely necessary for the overall storyline, but were not boring, so I shall not criticize.

I loved and hated the right characters! Elizabeth, Jane and Mr. Darcy were wonderfully written protagonists. Elizabeth has this strong love for her sister which was heartwarming to witness and her dialogues with Mr. Darcy were hilarious. I, however, despised Lydia and Mrs. Bennet. They were super annoying: Lydia not at all sympathetic and grateful for her family’s help and sacrifices on her behalf and Mrs. Bennet was too much, too energetic, too much in other people’s business and ruined much more for her children than she tried to fix.

The writing was spectacular. I had to adjust to the old language and the different words such as “cried out” for saying something emotionally, but after adjusting, I enjoyed the writing style. Understandable, yet providing a deep insight into the protagonists feelings. I was however, not able to distinguish the proposal of Mr. Darcy at the end and even after reading it second time, could not figure out at what point he proposed to her again (which was no biggie).

So all in all: I will be watching the movie again (since I also didn’t enjoy it the first time around) and will be recommending this book to all my friends who usually don’t read classics. Plus: will now watch Bridget Jones even more closely because I’m sure I have not grasped many similarities besides Marc Darcy turning out to be her dream husband and him not cheating on Daniel Cleaver’s wife!