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Description edit
A dazzling urban satire of modern human relations?
An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family?
Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something?
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
"130 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds overnight? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier (repulsive, horrifying notion)); alcohol units 2 (excellent) cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow); number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters edit
- Bridget Jones: Wacky British 'Singleton'. Over thirty and looking for 'the one'. Hates "smug marrieds".
- Daniel Cleaver: Works with Bridget. Notorious ladies' man.
- Mark Darcy: Grew up with Bridget. Family and parents friends are always trying to set them up together. Very successful barrester. Divorced.
- Colin Jones: Bridget's dad
- Pamela Jones: Bridget's mother
- Tom: Homosexual best friend of Bridget's. Is in an on-and-off relationship with Jerome.
- Sharon: Also known as Shazzer. Bridget's friend.
- Jude: One of Bridget's best friends
- Richard Finch: Bridget's boss at the TV station
- Natasha: Mark Darcy's girlfriend.
- Perpetua: Bridget's boss at the publishers
- Julio: Bridget's mother's boy-toy.
- Una Alconbury: Bridget's mom's best friend
- Geoffrey Alconbury: Lecherous friend of Bridget's parents.
- Magda: Bridget's married best friend
- Jeremy: Magda's husband
- Simon: Add a description of this character.
- Jamie: Bridget's brother
- Jerome: Tom's lover.
- Anne
- Malcolm
- Vanessa
- Dole
- Mavis Enderby
- Peter
- Nick
- Elaine Darcy: Mark's mother.
- Marco Pierre White
- Toni
- Richard: On and off boyfriend of Jude's. Vile.
Quotes edit
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“My mum, a strange creature from the time when pickles on toothpicks were still the height of sophistication.”
Bridget Jones -
“I will not fall for any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, commitment phobics, people with girlfriends or wives, misogynists, megalomanics, chauvists, emotional fuckwits or freeloaders, perverts.”
Bridget Jones -
“It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr. Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party. It's like being called Heathcliff and insisting on spending the entire evening in the garden, shouting "Cathy" and banging your head against a tree.”
Bridget Jones -
“Tom has a theory that homosexuals and single women in their thirties have natural bonding: both being accustomed to disappointing their parents and being treated as freaks by society.”
Bridget Jones -
“Instead of straining or becoming angry you should just relax and feel your way into the Flow and everything would work out.”
Bridget Jones -
“However, one must not live one's life through men but must be complete in oneself as a woman of substance.”
Bridget Jones
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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Being a woman is worse than being a farmer—there is so much harvesting and crop spraying to be done: legs to be waxed, underarms shaved, eyebrows plucked, feet pumiced, skin exfoliated and moisturized, spots cleansed, roots dyed, eyelashes tinted, nails filed, cellulite massaged, stomach muscles exercised. The whole performance is so highly tuned you only need to neglect it for a few days for the whole thing to go to seed.
Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers -
Tom has a theory that homosexuals and single women in their thirties have natural bonding: both being accustomed to disappointing their parents and being treated as freaks by society.
Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers -
There’s nothing worse than people telling you you look tired. They might as well have done with it and say you look like five kinds of shit.
Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers -
Why is entire world geared to make people not involved in romance feel stupid when everyone knows romance does not work anyway.
Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers -
It’s no good. When someone leaves you, apart from missing them, apart from the fact that the whole little world you’ve created together collapses, and that everything you see or do reminds you of them, the worst is the thought that they tried you out and, in the end, the whole sum of parts adds up to you got stamped REJECT by the one you love.
Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers -
“We women are only vulnerable because we are a pioneer generation daring to refuse to compromise in love and relying on our own economic power.
Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers -
It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr. Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party. It’s like being called Heathcliff and insisting on spending the entire evening in the garden, shouting “Cathy” and banging your head against a tree.
Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers -
Sulk about having no boyfriend, but develop inner poise and authority and sense of self as woman of substance, complete without boyfriend, as best way to obtain boyfriend.
Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers -
It is proved by surveys that happiness does not come from love, wealth or power but the pursuit of attainable goals: and what is a diet if not that?
Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers -
Wise people will say Daniel should like me just as I am, but I am a child of Cosmopolitan culture, have been traumatized by supermodels and too many quizzes and know that neither my personality nor my body is up to it if left to its own devices. I can’t take the pressure. I am going to cancel and spend the evening eating doughnuts in a cardigan with egg on it.
Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
First Sentence edit
129 lbs. (but post-Christmas), alcohol units 14 (but effectively covers 2 days as 4 hours of party was on New Year's Day), cigarettes 22, calories 5424.
Table of Contents edit
New Years Resolutions
January - An Exceptionally Bad Start
February - Valentine's Day Massacre
March - Severe Birthday-Related Thirties Panic
April - Inner Poise
May - Mother-to-Be
June - Hah! Boyfriend
July - Huh
August - Disintegration
September - Up the Fireman's Pole
October - Date with Darcy
November - A Criminal in the Family
December - Oh, Christ
January-December - A Summary
Glossary edit
- Singletons: Single, romantically unattached individuals.
- Smug Marrieds: Self-satisfied married people
- Fuckwittage: Intentional emotional wreakage caused by men who range from commitment phobics to womanizers.
Themes & Symbolism edit
Series & Lists edit
This is book 1 of 3 in Bridget Jones. (standard series)
Followed by The Edge of Reason.
This is book 75 of 200 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)
This book is in Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition Book Covers. (community list)
This book is in Random Synapses: 100 Book Reading Challenge (2011). (community list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 68 of 95 in Telegraph Top 100 Books, 2008. (authoritative list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Helen Fielding (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Picador
Country: Great Britain
Publication Date: 1996
ISBN: 3442309433
Page Count: 301
Publisher: Picador
Country: Great Britain
Publication Date: 1996
ISBN: 3442309433
Page Count: 301
Awards edit
- British Book of the Year (1998)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PR6056.I4588
- Dewey: 823.914
Subjects edit
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