One of the most universally loved and admired English novels, Pride and Prejudice was penned as a popular entertainment. But the consummate artistry of Jane Austen (1775–1817) transformed this effervescent tale of rural romance into a witty, shrewdly observed satire of English country life that is now regarded as one of the principal treasures of English language.
In a remote Hertfordshire village, far off the good coach roads of George III’s England, a country squire of no great means must marry off his five vivacious daughters. At the heart of this all-consuming enterprise are his headstrong second daughter Elizabeth Bennet and her aristocratic suitor Fitzwilliam Darcy — two lovers whose pride must be humbled and prejudices dissolved before the novel can come to its splendid conclusion.

My rating: 4 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for the Roof Beam Reader TBR Pile Reading Challenge, #1 on the list I set for myself at the beginning of this year. I can say with complete honesty that I have no idea how its possible that I haven’t read this book yet. I started it a few years ago and never finished it, which in itself is not all that surprising, though it is rare for me to do that. But this combined with the fact that the movie is probably one of my all time favorite movies and that I have at this point watched it well over one hundred times makes the fact that I haven’t read the book simply boggling. Therefore when I was lining up my list for the TBR Pile Reading Challenge at the beginning of this year, this one was the first to go on my list.
I expected this but I absolutely loved the book. The prose is magical and beautiful in and of itself, I was forever drawn into the way Austen would describe certain scenes and marveled that simply the way the words were strung together could give my heart such joy. The story I’m sure everyone is familiar with so I will not go into detail on the plot. I will comment that both Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy evolve so much as characters in the book, it is interesting to see how they grow and change as people through the story.
This is an excellent love story, exactly as it is purported to be.