Pride and Prejudice is perhaps the best-known and best-loved book by Jane Austen. Set in early 19th century England, this is the story of one family’s attempt to marry their daughters in an advantageous fashion, as seen mainly through the eyes of the second daughter, Elizabeth Bennet. The story moves through many surprising twists and turns, including a surprise breakup and a scandalous elopement which is almost the ruin of the entire Bennet family, before arriving at its resolution.
(What’s this? A guy reading and reviewing a girls’ book? Quick, somebody call Focus on the Family and tell James Dobson about this!!!)
I like Pride and Prejudice because of the way that Jane Austen is able to weave a compelling plot story out of almost no action (unless you count talking, walking, or riding in carriages as action). The main focus of the story is the relationship of Elizabeth and Darcy. From their first meeting, both have a strong dislike for each other. Darcy gradually falls in love with Elizabeth, though he takes great pains not to show it. But Elizabeth maintains her dislike of Darcy, teasing and affronting him viciously at every opportunity. Eventually he proposes to her, and she vehemently rejects his proposal. But Elizabeth comes to understand Darcy’s true character, and as she does, she falls in love with him. However, just at this point a scandal breaks out involving Elizabeth’s younger sister which threatens to disgrace her entire family. This shows the genius of Jane Austen’s plot writing, that Elizabeth would finally fall in love with Darcy just at the point when circumstances threaten to put her forever out of Darcy’s reach. And when the scandal is favorably resolved, it is found that Darcy, the last person one would expect to be involved, is the very person who was working behind the scenes to resolve things.
I have read it three times, and each time my interest is picqued to read how it will turn out in the end, even though I already know. I always love a good plot story, and I think this counts as one of the best in all of Western literature.
I also like the characters in this story. Elizabeth Bennet is an intelligent, headstrong, witty young woman who is willing to wait on true love, no matter how long it takes. Darcy is an equally intelligent man who is frequently misunderstood because his social manners do not endear him very well to other people. But to those who will take the trouble to go beyond their first impressions of him, he shows himself to be a very generous, caring young man.
Then there is Mrs. Bennet, the flaky, insensible woman who is obsessed with getting her daughters married at any cost. There is Mary Bennet, the insipid, overly sentimental mediocrity. There is Lydia, the wild woman with a penchant for scandal. There is Mr. Collins, the pompous and obsequious buffoon. And there is Wickham, the officer with pleasant manners who turns out to be an insufferable scoundrel.
All of these are believable characters, based on essential traits of human nature which can easily be observed in any of the people we interact with in real life.
Finally, there is the idea of love that will make even the most unthinkable sacrifices for the sake of its object. Darcy shows this in his love for Elizabeth. He is right there with her when she receives the news of Lydia’s scandalous elopement with Wickham. At this point we expect that he would turn away from Elizabeth and have nothing to do with her ever again. And he would be perfectly right in doing so, by the social conventions of his time. But instead he goes to work behind the scenes for Elizabeth’s sake, to remove the disgrace which she and her family should have borne. He is even willing to take that disgrace upon himself in some measure, by associating himself with Wickham as brother-in-law once Lydia and Wickham are married.
This idea of sacrificial love that will do anything for the sake of its object is one of the most poignant and powerful themes in all of literature. It is perhaps in our nature as humans to long for such a love, and to be drawn to it whenever we see it described in literature or modeled in real life.
Pride and Prejudice has many endearing qualities, yet it is not entirely without fault. First of all, many of the conversational sequences of the story contain dialogue about things which are completely irrelevant to the story. For instance, there is one section where the characters go on for a whole page talking about whether the country is better than the city, and whether poetry can drive away love.
Then there is the annoying tendency of Jane Austen to use “Miss Bennet” to refer to the Bennet sisters, leaving the reader to figure out which one from the context of the story.
Also, the change in Darcy’s manners between Hertfordshire and Pemberley is not very convincing. Darcy accounts for this by saying, “As a child, I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit.” Yet we know that Darcy is described by those in Derbyshire who have known him all his life as a generous, well-mannered, and caring young man. The only people who think ill of him are the Hertfordshire people, who have known him only for the time described in the story, and Wickham, who of course has turned out to be a scoundrel. Though perhaps it makes sense that Darcy would be that self-deprecating in describing his conduct to Elizabeth privately, this should not be the last word in accounting for the difference in Darcy’s manners. I would have been more satisfied to see Darcy as the same person, misunderstood in one place by those who had known him for only a short time.
Yet in spite of these shortcomings, I still believe that Pride and Prejudice is a worthwhile read, and I recommend it highly, no matter what James Dobson might think.
