Pride and Prejudice

[marycatelli]

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

This is not my favorite Jane Austen -- that's Persuasion -- but then, that's a high bar.   The Bennet family, with five daughters and no sons, and the estate entailed, learn that a neighboring house has been taken by a well-to-do single young man, and indeed, he arrives with a party including his sisters, and another well-to-do single young man.  Meanwhile, a charming young man, not wealthy, has joined the regiment currently encamped in their town.

In a plot involving balls, letters, long walks, a sickness, a tourist trip, a visit to a stately home, a woman whose attractions are her new inheritance, and much more, this comes to a conclusion.

Comments

[john-j-enright.livejournal.com]

When I first read that first sentence - I was in high school - I thought "how stupid," little realizing that I was SUPPOSED to recognize the statement as as making fun of self-interested presumptions.

Decades later I read the book and really enjoyed it.

[marycatelli]

Yeah, there's an art to reading irony.