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Pride and Prejudice
 

Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
Next to the exhortation at the beginning of Moby-Dick, "Call me Ishmael," the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice must be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies... (read more)

Top tags: classic,  fiction,  romance,  jane austen,  classic literature (all tags)

Discussions

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  • matthew

    matthew said:

    “I'm glad I'm not the only one who says Elizabeth married Darcy not out of love, but for his money.”

    posted Sunday, August 3 2008 ( | view 2 replies )
  • Éowyn

    éowyn said:

    “does it bother anyone else that darcy's letter to elizabeth further insults her family when he is explaining the jane/bingley relationship? i really love P&P but that is always something that has kind of bugged me...”

    posted Tuesday, July 29 2008 ( | view 4 replies )
  • zami m

    zami m said:

    “actually i didn't read this book yet but i bought it last week and im feeling it's good i read all ur say about this book and i see that you may right but its always about what u looking for when u wanna read a book so some wanna passion,love that through hardships survive and some looking logical things so im wondering is this book that bad and there is no love and i mean good things? selina i agree with this idea about that what he done for her make him gentleman but not make her to fell in love - ehehhe while im stilll reading i will stop here , just my own point of view so dont take me bad way.”

    posted Saturday, July 19 2008 ( | view 2 replies )
  • Selina C

    selina c said:

    “No. I am not misreading Austen. I am merely pointing out the ironies. And any reader of Austen worth their salt appreciates her ironies.. She exposes his false charm, yes, but the reason why she does that is to provide foil for Mr Darcy and to expose Elizabeth's cherished ideals about marriage as impractical.

    You talk about Lydia's prospects - Elizabeth lives in the petit-bourgeouis world, Darcy saves her family yes, but where exactly is the romance or passion in that? It's propriety. It's about being a gentleman. I'm not saying that is not admirable, but that doesn't convince the reader Elizabeth actually is in love with Darcy.

    Austen was an acute observer. Into this world, she brings us the courtship of Elizabeth and Darcy as the main plot, but is not the whole story, by any means. The beginning of the novel talks about marriage, and the end, there are not one, but two marriages. To constantly insist that P&P is a romance is to ignore everything else that is wonderful about the novel.”

    posted Saturday, July 5 2008
  • Zero

    zero said:

    “You strangely misread Miss Austen's target in the case of Wickham; it's charm that she is exposing as the false virtue. As for condemnations of the petit-bourgeois ("petit-gentry" in this case) and such, that's a modern attitude without appreciation for the times and context of the story. The Bennet family is already threatened without an heir and the only hope for the daughters is to marry -- well if possible. Had Lydia returned home a "fallen woman" it would have done incalculable damage to her sisters prospects and, needless to say, ruined her own.

    As for love: many women fall in love with the men who save them. Darcy saves both Lydia from disgrace and Jane from disappointment. It is not surprising that Liz, not to mention a host of female readers, fall for Mr. Darcy. He certainly appears, as a man of true virtue, to be worthy of such feeling to this reader. Not only is he the mate of choice for Miss Bennet, but I rather suspect the fantasy suitor of our author as well.

    Be a reader average, poor, superior, or scholastic I think that the majority recognize a romance when they read one and every Austen novel is a romance.”

    posted Saturday, July 5 2008
  • Amrita J

    amrita j said:

    “Agreed with Selina. It is indeed a love story only on the Darcy's side. But for Elizabeth, it is more of a practicle decision than just carried away by the the emotions. She has intelligently rapped her practicleness under the name of Love. But u cant deny the fact that she started thinking positively about Darcy only after her visit to Pemberly.

    But again it is all about 'P' factor, percpective, as said by Zero.”

    posted Friday, July 4 2008
  • shaluka

    shaluka said:

    “ah well, I first read it when there was nary a cloud of cynicism on my horizon. I love it still because it takes me back to that age of innocence - so for me it will always be the epitome of romance :)”

    posted Friday, July 4 2008
  • Selina C

    selina c said:

    “Beyond reasonable doubt? I don't think so. People who believe in romance...well..lets see the proof of love, as you say. Is love reasonable? I think from experience you would know it is not so...

    Rescuing Bennet from disaster...what does he do exactly? It's only social standing. That's not disaster. That's just submitting to petty middle-class proprieties.

    You say they fall in love..I don't think so..maybe on Darcy's part but I don't think it is mutual. What you describe is both reassessing their mistaken impressions of each other. Observing someone being kind to their sister isn't akin to falling in love with them. Realising someone is in fact generous and kindly isn't falling in love.

    Elizabeth SAYS she will only marry for love and never for wealth but in practice, as it turns out, she doesn't. When she finds out Darcy is generous (with his money) and she sees the grounds of Pemberly she changes her mind. That's marrying for wealth.

    Does she love him? That's hard to say. She may think so, but in the end she may love the attractions of wealth and Pemberley more. Austen is quite clear about this irony. She has Lizzie all set to accept a proposal from the charming but poorer Wickham, just to prove Lizzie's convictions, but Austen makes him into a scoundrel, to lead Lizzie into accepting the not-so-charming Darcy who embodies wealth. She might grow to love him later on..but we don't know that.

    The average reader may see it as a romance, but I am not fooled.”

    posted Friday, July 4 2008
  • shaluka

    shaluka said:

    “Not a romance? Am I reading right? Has there been some kind of a classification shake-up? P & P always figured as one of my favourite love stories - as it has for so many I know. He's everything a hero should be - and she's the woman most women would like to be!”

    posted Friday, July 4 2008
  • Zero

    zero said:

    “The word hero, in the sense that I am using it, is used to describe the central figure(s) in a narrative. However I disagree with you regarding the "heroism" of the characters. Darcy absolutely rescues the Bennet family from disaster by his intervention in Lydia's folly for the obvious example. But that is very much beside the point.

    Your reading is a very cynical one. Darcy falls in love with Liz when he observes her sisterly love and attentions to Jane during her illness (the same feeling he shares for his own sister). She falls in love with him when she realises that not only was she mistaken in her original assessment of his character (tainted by her Wickham attachment) but that he was -- secretly -- a man of generous and magnanimous temperament (if only socially awkward).

    Miss Austen is very clear that Mr. Darcy has a far more convenient marriage in the offing but instead he takes his suit to Liz (the objections to which he outlines in his first blundering proposal). Liz is quite clear, as she assures her father, that she is marrying for love and would never marry for wealth.

    I think your impression says more about the reader than the author, which isn't a bad thing but not a sufficient reason to contradict the words and actions of the characters themselves. You did not believe the romance, very fine, many others and I did. That a romance is the intention of the the author is beyond reasonable doubt.”

    posted Thursday, July 3 2008
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