First published in 1813.
Thickness: 480 pages
Personal rating: 4 stars
In Short
When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited, while he struggles to remain indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life. (www.goodreads.com)
My two cents
I loved this novel. Pride & Prejudice has been standing on my TBR-shelf for a while now, and I was reluctant to pick it up.
Why?
Because I have been reading the so-called classics and have been disappointed with almost all of them. Of course, having been on a streak of novels I just couldn't finish, I initially thought P&P might be more of the same and I longed for a novel that could draw me in and give me the feeling I wanted to read it, instead of it turning into a task.
Pride & Prejudice delivered me what I asked for. It is a wonderful novel, of such light humour and satire I was desperately trying to find time to continue reading, which isn't evident when I'm days away from going into labour and still have a living rooms that needs a bit of sprucing up after having been renovated recently.
So late at night, in bed, I was reading of Lizzie Bennet and Mr Darcy and all the means of English society in the early 19th century.
It has restored faith in me, in reading early 19th century novels. Early 20th century novels still have a long way to go, to earn my trust again, but of Jane Austen will be more read.
Anyway, don't hesitate of picking it up. It's a true classic. More of a romantic story than any of those YA-novels circling the bookstores nowadays.
