Review: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

Series: No, stand-alone.

Published: Aug 2011 (Originally 1813)

Publisher: Michael O'Mara

Details: 416 pages

My Rating: 3/5

Synopsis:

Spirited, intelligent Elizabeth Bennet is alternately enchanted and affronted by Mr. Darcy. She is quick to suspend her usual, more rational judgment when it comes to him. She also is quick to believe the worst gossip about this haughty, opinionated man, who soon manages to alienate Elizabeth and her family. But is the condescending air that Mr. Darcy wars an indication of his real character? Or has Elizabeth’s pride gotten in the way of her chance for true romance?

My thoughts:

So I finally got to read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I have been meaning to for quite some time, ever since I watched the movie adaptation in 2005, and the brilliant BBC series starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. I was eager to read the book since I assumed there would be more to it, more details and dialogues to the story than shown in the movie and the series. Such is usually the case with any on-screen adaptation, that due to time limits scenes are cut from the book.

Therefore, it surprised me to find out that the whole story had been captured so well in the BBC series. In fact, almost every scene in the book is included. So for someone like me, who knew the BBC series by heart, it felt as if I was simply reading the script of the series. Of course, I still love the story, and so I enjoyed reading the book. But I can’t help thinking that I enjoyed the BBC series more. To me, the series felt more alive and passionate than the actual book, mainly due to the amazing actors. This certainly doesn’t happen often. I generally like the books more than the on-screen adaptations. One explaination may be the old-fashioned English, which I did struggle with throughout the book, but mostly it was, like I said, because the book did not add much to the story if compared to the series.

So, all though I love the story and I acknowledge the fact that this book is 200 years old yet still among the top romantic novels of modern time, it didn’t capture me completely. That being said, it is still a good read.