Pride and Prejudice

[whiteflare]

I thought I'd hate it. We've been slaving away over Shakespeare for terms, and our English teach whips out another story from the middle ages?

I still hate the book, but I don't resent the story so much anymore. I never thought I'd ever like Pride and Prejudice.
Well!

Mostly, due to Mr. Darcy.

 

[Thegrayeyedgirl]

I tried reading the book...it was so wordy it was difficult for a 21st century girl like me to read. Now, the A&E movie (NOT the Keira Knightly one, we don't even waste our time with that one, Colin Firth is the foshizzle).......one of my favorites ever. My sisters loooove that movie too. Sometimes we watch all 5 hours of it in one day

 

[ChicksterJo]

I've never been a big fan of Jane Austen. In my last quarter of University I took a whole Jane Austen class. I have only myself to blame. Anyway, the class did not make me like Austen anymore than I already did. I thought Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma are all so similar in storyline. When I had to read Emma in high school, I only skimmed through it because I couldn't finish even the first page.

I also liked Mr. Darcy but it is a little strange how Austen suddenly makes him change after Elizabeth visits his house. She suddenly comes to respect him because of what his nurse/housekeeper says about him - as if she couldn't make that type of decision herself.

 

[PineappleMama]

*fans self* Darcy... One of my fav literary fellas... *sigh*

Heathcliff on the other hand or his bugger of a son Linton... OHHH or John Reed...
or the Thénardiers ... that family...

(Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Les Mis respectively)

Les Misérables is a long one, but the characters... Jean and Javert longstanding game of cat and mouse... the ups and downs... fantastic. Bronte and Austen are too, but Les Mis just... phew.

Dickens is great too... he's such a smart... asp.

 

[whiteflare]

It's in no way my style either. The language is terrible, but the teacher made us read the entire of volume one... well, of course, I would rather pull all my hair out so I stopped at chapter 19 and she never probed any further into it

Mr. Darcy was a hit. He seems to, for some odd reason, look ever the more handsome when he's angry.

I've never read any of Jane Austen's other novels. I won't ever, I don't think, by choice. I dislike romance greatly, it has never been my style to read about women chasing men or vice versa.

Les Mis sounds kind of good. The music is good anyhow, we sang a few of the songs in a recent choir concert.

 

[PaulaSB12]

Oh come on there is so much more in Jane Austen's books than romance. It shows an age when really all a woman could do would be to marry. The jobs that were acceptable for women to do where limited. While technically a woman could inherit property and money because of the laws of the times that inheritance would be looked after by a male relative. Look at Charlotte Lucas 27 years old (considered really old for finding a huband) she had a choice a home with a husband she could control and future ownership of Longbourn with an income of £2000 per year Or she could become a poor relation in the family home when her brother inherited it and be an unwanted burden.

 

[catwalk]

Austen writes good literature, but the Bronte sisters have good stories. Read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Delicioulsy disturbing!

 

[ChicksterJo]

Sure the books are more than just about romance. I was going to add that the women basically had no choice. If they didn't marry they'd have to depend on their closest living male relative. Usually that means living with their brother or father for the rest of their lives. Or, they could marry for money and "comfort," which I guess is the more "empowering" option for them because they wouldn't depend on their relative, they'd depend on their husband. Or, if they had more money to bring to the marriage, then they'd probably feel empowered just by that. But it gets tiring when all of Austen's novels (that I've read) touch upon similar, if not the same, problems.
I wish Emily Bronte had lived longer and had written more..I would have liked to see if she could follow up Wuthering Heights with an even better love story. Sigh...Heathcliff - the passion!!

 

[mom'sfolly]

I much prefer Sense and Sensibility. I like the differences between the sisters, the reactions to the limited range of choices they have and the whole underlying material about societal norms and manners.

 

[Q9]

I was forced to read that and Jane Eyre this past year.

Not fun. I much preferred Gulliver's Travels, A Tale of Two Cities, Robinson Crusoe, and Animal Farm.