Isabelle Sackville-West
Honors English
Book Review
9/11/11
Pride and Prejudice by Jane AustenPride and Prejudice is the story of the Bennets, a family containing five, unique daughters. The eldest Jane is beautiful and kind, Lizzie her younger sister is a lesser beauty, however, has a much deeper personality. Mary, Kitty, and Lydia are the youngest daughters. They are unruly and have no self-control whatsoever. The Bennets have a chaotic but entertaining family. All that Mr. and Mrs. Bennet want for their children is to be married and happy, so the majority of the book is spent trying to acquaint the girls with various gentlemen. the main character of the story is Lizzie; we watch her feud with her family, help her sisters, and work through a topsy-turvy love.
I rate the book an 8 out of 10, and I would recommend this book to people who enjoy a slightly calmer read. Jane Austen's victorian style of writing uses very clever imagery and has a smooth flow and pace. The story itself has many exciting twists in the plot, though they mostly occur at the end. The reason, however, why it was marked down is because there were times when the story was slow and nothing of particular interest happened. As a whole Pride and Prejudice is a heartwarming story of love and society that I highly recommend.
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ReplyDeleteI like the voice from which the story is written. The author sounds like she likes her characters, but is amused by them at the same time. When Mrs. Bennet constantly talks about getting her daughters married and all the new young men in the town, Jane Austen writes about it in an amused way. She makes Mrs. Bennet look silly and the youngest daughters as well.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the characters she actually puts in a good light, is Lizzy. She describes her as being sensible and she's different from her other sisters. Lizzy isn't always worried about boys or getting married while her other sisters like Kitty or Lydia. She also shows Mr. Bennet in a good light. He watches from the sidelines as his wife and daughters worry about what he thinks are trivial things, but the author likes the more "sensible" characters and as I read I start to like the sensible characters too. I start thinking Mrs. Bennet and the younger daughters are so silly and fret about everything and I think Jane Austen wants her reader to feel that way.
I think that's also why Mr. Bennet's favorite daughter is Lizzy they can actually have a conversation without having it filled with marriageand the town gossip. So far, I like the voice from which the story is told and I think I'm starting to agree with how the author thinks of her characters.
I thought that Jane Austen was amused by her characters as well. In ways she almost makes fun of them. Mr. Bennet is probably my favorite character aside from Lizzie and Jane. Who is your favorite character? The story is told in a way that makes you like the protagonist as well as the antagonists. Jane Austen uses very inventive ways to describe and show characters personalities, as you will continue to see. I am glad that you are enjoying the book so far and hope you continue to like it.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite character so far is Mr. Darcy. He's one of the "bad" characters, but I think that's why he's interesting. He looks so proud and arrogant on the outside so I was really surprised when he started to love Lizzy.
ReplyDeleteAt times I dislike him though. He only hides his interest in Lizzy because, he doesn't like how little her connections are and the status of her family. I was confused why he even liked her when he didn't like her family, but I can agree with him sometimes, Kitty and Lydia do make the family have a bad image. I always thought he was the bad guy in the book, and that he was just a stuck up rich man but when he wrote the letter to Lizzy that really shocked me.
People make him look worse than he is, and a lot of people in the story including Lizzy don't like him so I also didn't like him. He was always showed in a negative air by the author and I didn't expect him to have any goodness in him. I'm surprised that his love for Lizzy overcame the "status difference" that is between them. My perspective of him changed with Lizzy's except I think I'm more sympathetic to him now. It kind of reminds me of "To Kill a Mockingbird" when Atticus tells Scout to see in someone else's perspective and I got to see Mr. Darcy's perspective through his letter.
The most surprising event to me right now, is when Lydia elopes with Wickham. At first I was panicking that he would do something bad to her, or refuse to marry her and I thought it would only end badly, but I was surprised because just the contrary happened.
ReplyDeleteWhen news came that Lydia and Wickham had actually married, it shocked me. I expected that Wickham would ask for an unfathomable amount of money in exchange for marrying her, but he asked only a small amount from Mr. Bennet each month. It was really puzzling because, I knew Wickham only married for money, and Lydia didn't have that much money to give. I concluded that Wickham actually loved Lydia, but then Mr. Gardiner said he had paid the money Wickham had been asking for! I was surprised, but then I thought it was probably very likely because he was her uncle.
The only worry I had then, was how Mr. Bennet could pay him back, but then Lydia said something about Mr. Darcy being present at the wedding. The last place Mr. Darcy would have been was Wickham's wedding but he was said to have been there. I thought, maybe because he'd been in the area he just happened to stop by? But my curiosity was rewarded by Lizzy inquiring about it to Mrs. Gardiner. Then I finally saw the real reason Wickham had married Lydia, it was because of Mr. Darcy!
He had paid (practically bribed) Wickham into marrying her when he saw that Lydia was set on marrying Wickham. This was all for Lizzy's sake and it really revealed to me how much he actually loved her. I didn't think his love would last so long, but he's actually trying to conquer his pride to love Lizzy.
Because of this, my opinion of Mr. Darcy completely changed, even more than before and now, he's become my favorite character.
Sorry it has taken me so long to respond, I was having some difficulties with posting.
ReplyDeleteMr. Darcy is an interesting character. Like you, my opinion of him completely changed. The way he originally proposed to her was awful and insulting, but he worked so hard to get past what he has been taught his whole life that you know he must really love her.
As far as the incident with Lydia, I still despise Wickham. There is something about him, even though he ends up marrying Lydia, that I don't like. He does everything for the wrong reasons.
I am glad you are enjoying the book, and as I said before sorry that I couldn't respond sooner!
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
ReplyDeletePride and Prejudice is a story about the Bennet family containing five very different daughters. Jane the eldest is thought of as the most beautiful and is the favorite, Lizzie is the narrator and although has less beauty than Jane has more sense than her younger sisters. Mary is more anti-social, and indulges herself in books while the youngest daughters; Kitty and Lydia are the complete opposite acting like flirty social butterflies. Many conflict are seen because of these completely different personalities, which include love and family struggles. The main problem in the story is, Mrs. Bennet's constant desire for her daughters to be married before all of her neighbors and in most of the story, the girls meet many different gentleman for the sake of their mother. The main character of the story is Lizzie, throughout the story not only does she deal with family problems, but love troubles as well.
I would rate this book a 8.5 out of 10 because although the plot was interesting the, the interesting parts only came toward the end. So, in the beginning the story could get a little slow. What I especially liked about is Jane Austen's humorous way of developing her characters. All the characters in the story are well developed and are able to be related to. The author uses humor effectively and that helped move the story along. Girls would enjoy this book more, because the majority of the story deals with love. Although love is a major component in this story, any reader who wants a more mild read would enjoy this book. Pride and Prejudice is an interesting story about a unique family that I think any reader could relate to, and enjoy.