Pride and Prejudice with Related Readings
by Jane Austen

5 out of 5 stars

Elizabeth Bennett and her sisters are eager to make the acquaintance of their new neighbors, Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy. They meet and dance together at various country balls and events. However, Elizabeth is frequently embarrassed by her mother’s vulgar manners and her little sisters flirtations with army officers. Elizabeth must navigate the social criticism of her sisters’ romances, while fending off a few proposals of her own.

I just love the witty dialogue between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. There is so much sparkling dialogue in the whole book, and it is a delight to read. The entire writing style is so polished and easy to read! The plot flows along so naturally and with so much energy that you barely notice all the little genius sub-plots that are happening.

This book also has some of the funniest lines in all of literature! I always laugh when I reread this book. I really love that Elizabeth and her father, Mr. Bennett, have the same sense of humor. There is such a close relationship between them which is lovely to read about.

I think the best part about this book is the character development of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. They start out with some bad behavior and personal flaws, but over the course of their rocky relationship, they are like the description of friendship in the Bible; “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” -Proverbs 27:17

Elizabeth learns to discern other people’s characters more carefully, and Darcy learns a little humility. They both begin to value the other’s persons good qualities. They both have very independent and complex personalities. It’s so interesting to see all the little steps in their development.

I think one of the most genius things about this book is the balance between characters’ personalities. Mary is too serious, Lydia and Kitty are too flirty, so Jane and Elizabeth appear to advantage. Our main characters are balanced right in the middle, and that makes them more attractive to the reader.

This book is a perfect masterpiece! Every time I reread this book I love it more and more, and see more depth in the characters, and more humor in the sarcastic writing style. Jane Austen’s writing never fails to amaze me. She has such a perceptive way of laying bare every thought and action of each character with exquisite insight into the little vexations and desires of human nature.

I didn’t enjoy much of the related readings at the back of this edition. There was one excerpt from Daniel Pool’s book What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England that I did like since it added to the knowledge about this historical time period. But the rest of the short stories, article, and one poem were either not “related” to Jane Austen at all that I could see or were just unenjoyable.