I am so genuinely surprised at the positive experience I had reading this book! I had so much fun reading it and can now understand why people love it so much :3 Let's be real this deserves 5 stars <3

Around the Year in 52 Books Challenge Notes:
- 9. A book mentioned in another book

this is what other enemies to lovers books wish they were.

“

Eh, just okay. Basically a character study of 19th century England, society, courtship, etc. Nothing all that mind blowing or enthralling happens. In fact, not much really happens at all.

I know some out there love this one, but it wasn't really for me. To tell you the truth, I read this because I have Pride & Prejudice & Zombies sitting on my shelf ready to go, but I figured it would be best if I familiarized myself with the source material first.

NOTE: The review you are about to read was written in 2009. 2009! That's 15 years ago! I was 17 and thought I was the smartest person ever! In all honesty, I barely remember this book. So, negative comments regarding my intelligence are no longer necessary. They will be ignored. As they have been for probably 8 years now. CARRY ON!

P.S. Can we all just LOL at my use of the words "mind-numbing balls"?? HA.

This book is quite possibly the most insipid novel I have ever read in my life. Why this book is so highly treasured by society is beyond me. It is 345 pages of nothing. The characters are like wispy shadows of something that could be interesting, the language that could be beautiful ends up becoming difficult to decipher and lead me more than once to skip over entire paragraphs because I became tired of having to stumble through them only to emerge unsatisfied, and the plot is non-existent, as though Austen one day decided she wanted to write a novel and began without having any idea what would happen except that there would be a boy and a girl who seemingly didn’t like each other but in the end got married. The story really probably could have been told in about 8 pages, but Austen makes us slog through 345 pages of mind-numbing balls and dinner-parties. I don’t care what anyone says, this is not great literature. This is a snore.

Read my review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

A quintessential novel of manners. Fine moral intelligence and subtle psychological insight expressed in a straightforward, epigrammatic style. I read it for the first time forty years ago, and I am still half in love with Eliza Bennet.

"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen started off annoying me and ended up enchanting me. Up until about page one hundred I found this book vexing, frivolous and down right tedious. I now count myself as a convert to the Austen cult.

I must confess I have been known to express an antipathy for anything written or set before 1900. I just cannot get down with corsets, outdoor plumbing and buggy rides. Whenever someone dips a quill into an inkwell my eyes glaze over. This is a shortcoming I readily own up to but have no desire to correct. So I admit to not starting this book with the highest of hopes. I did really enjoy Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" however and so when my friend threw the gauntlet down I dutifully picked it up.

Boy did I hate him at first. To get anywhere with this book one has to immerse oneself in the realities of life and marriage in the nineteenth century. At first all this talk of entailment and manners just left me cold. I liked the language to be sure. Austen's dialogue is delightful through out but dialogue alone (no matter how delicious) does not a great novel make.

A hundred pages or so in though I started to see what a shrewd eye for character this Austen woman had. Mr. Collins was the first person I marvelled at. His character springs forth fully formed as a total but somehow loveable ass. From that point on I found much to love about this book. I was so into it by the end that I was laughing at some characters, sympathizing with others and clucking my tongue at an unhappy few. In short I was completely absorbed.

In conclusion I must now count myself a fan of Miss Austen's novels (and not just their fim adaptations) and do so look forward to acqauinting myself with more of her work in the future. "Emma" anyone?

I can't believe my professor read this 25 times. I am dead inside.

2.5

Sublime - unlike many books I loved as a teenager, it gets better and better with age, as the nuance and satire jumps off the page.

Reviewing few masterpiece-classics is like undermining them. I was assiduously searching through my pile of treasured-classics to pick up one to re-read. Re-reading helps me to exponentially increase my thirst for books and quench it at the same time (helps me with my vanity, hope not sounding like Mr. Darcy

If you are not Elizabeth Bennet or Fitzwilliam Darcy I am not gonna marry you. Period!!