Book Review: Pride and Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice
by Jane Austen
Pages: 432
Published by Barnes & Noble Classic
Publication Date May 14, 2004
Source: Bought
Genres: Classic
Goodreads

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues.

Pride and Prejudice I feel is the ultimate love story.  Our heroine, Elizabeth Bennet is pretty, witty and wise with a great sense of time and humor.  Mr. Darcy is rude, proud and very disagreeable, even if he is worth ten thousand a year.    Both cannot stand each other.  So what makes this the ultimate love story?

Jane Austen builds up this romance like someone climbing Mount Everest.  The beginning is easy to fall into with a lovely setting and becoming acquainted with the characters.  Through Elizabeth Bennet’s eyes, the reader forms an opinion of all the players no matter how prejudiced they may be and you go with them because Lizzy’s thoughts reign you in.  In the middle, the reader finds it hard to breath because of all the different accounts of the goings on when concerning Mr. Darcy and his childhood friend Mr. Wickham, a dashing young man in the militia charismatic enough to win any girl’s heart.  The reader is warned or is hinted that one should be wary of Wickham, but the dislike and prejudice towards Darcy are so great that it is quickly put aside.  The ending is breathtaking with all the elements put into place as they should be making the climb well worth it.