Book Review: Pride and Prejudice

I have seen the end of this 2005 film about 5 times.  Courtney is a big fan.  I thought it would be fun if I read the book before finally seeing the entire movie.  Interestingly, some of the most memorable parts of the movie actually were not in the book.  The general location and purpose of the scenes were the same, but not the words.  That is forgivable of course.  It's not like Count of Monte Cristo from 2002 where the characters and half of the plot were different.

I thought this was a lot funnier than Count of Monte Cristo (talking about the books now).  And it was more manageable (approx 300 pages vs. 1200).  Most of the suspense in Pride and Predudice is around relationships, misunderstandings, and personality analysis.  I like the character of Elizabeth, because she reminds me of myself.  She does not divulge all of her information until it is safe.  At the end everyone is surprised that she loves Mr. Darcy, because she hasn't told anyone.  I also like to really be sure of things before I tell people about them.  The desired end of P&P is marriage to eligible bachelors.  The desired end of "Count" is revenge.

So even though the desired end of P&P is marriage to eligible bachelors, I still found it interesting and suspenseful.  The emotion of wanting someone to like you, it goes beyond that time period and whatever gender we are speaking of.  But that time period makes in more suspenseful in that women were more dependent on men, legally and financially.  So there is a lot on the line with these romances.

I thought the book an excellent description of various personalities and motives.  It is just excellent!

I'm not a huge fan of literary critiques, they are often too academic and ruin the story for me. So I skipped the introduction that was written by a scholar.  But I'm sure they wrote that the book and author, Jane Austen, were remarkable.