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by: Jane Austen
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780194227100
ISBN: 0194227103
Label: Oxford University Press
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 112
Publication Date: 1995-05
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Sales Rank: 5590508
Studio: Oxford University Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
It's time to rediscover the wonderful books we all cherish.
Originally published anonymously in 1813, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is one of the most widely read and most popular novels in the English language. The courtship between the independent Elisabeth Bennett and the handsome yet arrogant Mr. Darcy illuminates the page in this wonderful novel of comedy and manners.
Amazon.com Review:
'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.'
Next to the exhortation at the beginning of Moby-Dick, 'Call me Ishmael,' the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice must be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British mating rituals with a sure hand and an unblinking eye. As usual, Austen trains her sights on a country village and a few families--in this case, the Bennets, the Philips, and the Lucases. Into their midst comes Mr. Bingley, a single man of good fortune, and his friend, Mr. Darcy, who is even richer. Mrs. Bennet, who married above her station, sees their arrival as an opportunity to marry off at least one of her five daughters. Bingley is complaisant and easily charmed by the eldest Bennet girl, Jane; Darcy, however, is harder to please. Put off by Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity and the untoward behavior of the three younger daughters, he is unable to see the true worth of the older girls, Jane and Elizabeth. His excessive pride offends Lizzy, who is more than willing to believe the worst that other people have to say of him; when George Wickham, a soldier stationed in the village, does indeed have a discreditable tale to tell, his words fall on fertile ground.
Having set up the central misunderstanding of the novel, Austen then brings in her cast of fascinating secondary characters: Mr. Collins, the sycophantic clergyman who aspires to Lizzy's hand but settles for her best friend, Charlotte, instead; Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy's insufferably snobbish aunt; and the Gardiners, Jane and Elizabeth's low-born but noble-hearted aunt and uncle. Some of Austen's best comedy comes from mixing and matching these representatives of different classes and economic strata, demonstrating the hypocrisy at the heart of so many social interactions. And though the novel is rife with romantic misunderstandings, rejected proposals, disastrous elopements, and a requisite happy ending for those who deserve one, Austen never gets so carried away with the romance that she loses sight of the hard economic realities of 19th-century matrimonial maneuvering. Good marriages for penniless girls such as the Bennets are hard to come by, and even Lizzy, who comes to sincerely value Mr. Darcy, remarks when asked when she first began to love him: 'It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.' She may be joking, but there's more than a little truth to her sentiment, as well. Jane Austen considered Elizabeth Bennet 'as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print'. Readers of Pride and Prejudice would be hard-pressed to disagree. --Alix Wilber
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Beautiful Classic
This book is a timeless and beloved classic. It's a beautiful story of class in Jane Austen's time that appeals to us today because it is so well-wrtitten. It's scrupulously clean morally, and I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates the time when love stories were wholesome and pure and touching. All the characters have an appeal that's makes you appreciate the way they fit into the story.
Rating: - Worth paying for on the Kindle
Kindle owners hopefully are aware of the wealth of free editions of the classics which are available through Feedbooks and other sources.
I obtained a copy of P&P from feedbooks originally and while it was easy to get and the price was right, the overall quality of the text is not great. I've found several typos, presumably the result of OCR errors and it's somewhat distracting.
Since P&P is one of my wife's favorite books, I was delighted to see
Penguin had ... Read More
Rating: - What a Year for the Bennets
As much as this book revolves around three of the four daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, all of those characters revolve around Mr. Darcy - whose personality and character matures and unfolds before you.
Neither poor nor rich, the Bennets cannot establish great wealth and comforts for their children - and Mrs. Bennet's hard opinionated character further deprives the lovely lasses of possibilities for advancement. But, through the character weakness(es) will come happiness in all levels ... Read More
Rating: - as always, better than the movie
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. It takes a little bit of time to get used to the language used, but once you get into it, it is hard to put down. A true romance. Why doesn't it happen like that anymore? :)
Rating: - Pride and Prejudice
It seriously does not get any better than this! This book unfolds slowly allowing you to fall in love with the characters and get a feel that world and time. An amazing love story, it leaves you wanting more!
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