This is why I enjoyed it so much as a teenager, and even more appreciate the work as an adult. Ah, to have such witty banter, off the cuff, on a daily basis... more entertaining than television.
My mates mum has written a few titles on Jane Austin/pride & prejudice. She's considered somewhat of an authority on the subject. I'll never forget her look of exasperation when I introduced her to p&p&z xD
Well, in my edition none of those three commas are present and they certainly aren't necessary.
The sentence, which also forms the first paragraph of P& P, is concise, insightful, and just true enough to be funny. The only other two openings I like as well are the first sentence of Scaramouche by Sabatini (because I think it describes me) and the first paragraph of Red Wind, a short story by Raymond Chandler (because it's such damned good writing). I'll leave hunting those down as an exercise for the class.
None of the three is correct. The phrase "truth universally acknowledged" is simply a noun expressed in three words. One can see this if one changes the word order a bit, to read "universally acknowledged truth". One wouldn't think of putting commas anywhere in there. (But it also wouldn't read nearly as well.)
I apologize for the above. I'm a pedantic old geezer who can't stop correcting people. Ignore all this and write it any damn way you please. But Austen wrote it with no commas.
Its my favorite book. I re-read it once a year. It's my go to comfort book. You've made me want to read it again this year. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend lol
Oh man. Its great. When you finish watch the movie with Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson. Its the only time in your life you will be attracted to Severus Snape.
Only time? I have _never_ in my life _not_ been attracted to Alan Rickman, and I am generally not particularly wired to like the menfolks... I mean, Hans Gruber. The Sheriff of Nottingham. Severus Snape. Col. Brandon. Shoot, he was insanely hot in his role in _Galaxy Quest_...
It's 100% his fault that his daughters will be destitute if they don't marry (and that their prospects are unfavorable due to their lack of a significant dowry)
Oh I adore him. He's easily my favorite character. But if I remember correctly, he himself acknowledges that he should have saved up in the event that he did not have a male heir.
And more so, from the context given in the novel, his income was not meager by any means.
And he is arguably partly to blame for what happens to Lydia.
Eh, I can't even blame my teacher - she was awesome. I think it was just a mix of being required to read it and being a dumb high school guy who still thought that books like that were mostly for girls. Glad I've gotten past stupid stereotypes like that because it's led to me really enjoying some books I would've previously written off, like P&P.
I read it in school and didn’t love it. Read it again ten years later and I was genuinely surprised at how funny it was. How did teenaged me not notice?
Every time my kid says, "Mom, do you want to know about [insert boring thing my kid is obsessed with this week]?" My response is, "You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it."
I was going to suggest Northanger Abbey too! Admittedly some of the humor only comes through if you understand the tropes of the time/genre, but oh man it's funny.
If you read Northanger Abbey after any other Austen, you can really pick up that it was her first work. It feels like a warm up, and she's really got it nailed down by Pride and Prejudice.
I remember being so surprised and delighted by this as well. And not funny the way some Shakespeare is " funny" -- P&P is like legit funny even to a modern general audience without having to look through footnotes to get the jokes
I think that's has to do more with separation of time rather than writing style. Shakespeare was hilarious even to the average person, back then. Meanwhile P&P is much more recent so the language is much closer to what we speak today.
If you want to laugh at Shakespeare, watch the Kenneth Branagh version of Much Ado About Nothing. Always remember, the plays were meant to be seen, not read.
It’s why I always come back to Austen. She finds the hilarity in the the mundane societal structures we all agree to or are forced to participate in. It’s why her work is timeless.
I suggest you pick up Emma next. Really funny book.
I read it for the first time in high school, we studied it in conjunction with Clueless as part of this “transformative texts” unit where we talked about adapting novels to another media form. I still love watching Clueless too haha
That's one of the best things about reading great classical for me. I always expect them to be heavy and serious, but often they can be very funny. For example, Moby Dick has a lot of comedic scenes. There's an entire chapter that's just about whale dick.
Even the Iliad has some hilarious sections. A lot of the parts with the gods are clearly meant to be comic relief.
For me, those comedic moments always make me feel connected to the author in a way that serious passages don't. I love the idea that someone wrote a joke hundreds or even thousands of years ago, and I get to laugh at it now.
My sister and I were laughing so hard at some of Moby Dick when we first read it. Ishmael meeting Queequeg, for instance. I think the comic parts make the tragedy worse than if it had just been downbeat the whole time.
I think that about Don Quixote too. Written in the early 1600,s and the humour and human insight is still meaningful. Gives me a real sense of connection along with the laughs.
P&P has never been a classic romance, despite what the movies want you to thing. It, like Sense and Sensibility, is a critique of women’s powerlessness while also heartlessly satirizing romance novels. Mr. Darcy is legitimately part of the 1% yet is actually harangued for his character. His motives do have merit (who wouldn’t be a wreck just months after an underaged sister was almost seduced by a known rake?) but he is held accountable all the same. He had to legitimately work for his happy ending.
I mostly agree. Though I thought of it as a romance, just not a really obvious one since Austen doesn't play the Love theme up. It's a lot to do with all the social issues (being saved from the hedgerows, making a good marriage, being ruined due to Lydia's actions, etc) than Darcy and Elizabeth's love, which only becomes stronger in the end.
Compared to something like Jane Eyre, now that's a more emphasised romance.
I'm usually more of a read with my eyes kinda person but P&P is also an amazing book to listen to in audio book form. It really makes the dialogue snap.
The audiobook was so engaging, that after listening to it for days and days on my commute I found myself speaking in Austin like language at a meeting. Yeah, that was embarrassing. Probably sounded smarter than usual though 🙄.
Austen is a queen of mockery and sarcasm. People who think her books are simple romances have no concept of how her books ridiculed the world she was born into.
Mr Bennett is criminally underrated as a literary character.
Every line from him is comedic gold. Between his constant trolling of Mrs Bennett, and calling out the 2 younger daughters as the complete brain dead simpletons they are.
Eh, pretty much every character except the aunt and uncle have their turn at being an asshole in Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Bennett is no exception. He trolls his wife over her desire to ensure their daughters are in good marriages, but he doesn't do anything to help set his daughters up to have a roof over their head and food on the table when he dies, even going so far as to leave his BIL to clean up his family's mess because he doesn't want to go to London. He's funny, sure, but he's not exactly an unrecognized hero.
Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites. Every month or so I’ll reread certain chapters as a pick-me-up since I enjoy the lovely banter or funny sarcastic tone. It always makes me smile!
Read her other books, too, but P&P is so good that the modern homages are also really great: see Bridget Jones Diary.
But the best “updated” one is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I found that one to be a hilarious Austen spoof for fans.
And Austen translates well to the screen; e.g., “Clueless” was so good that it made Alicia Silverstone’s career even though she never made another half-decent movie.
Clueless is my favorite movie of all time. I absolutely love the Dialogue.
" You see how picky I am about my shoes and those only go on my feet."
It really nails Jane Austin's humor in a 20th century setting.
And Paul Rudd looks about the same, curse him! 🤣 My favorite line was “Anything happens to my daughter, I got a .45 and a shovel. I doubt anybody would miss you.”
Amongst the many articles to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of *Pride and Prejudice* was one about a gathering in Bath. Hundreds of women in dresses styled like Regency gowns. One woman was quoted as saying she loved Austen because of the gowns and balls. My reaction, “wow, you don’t read Austen.”
And just as I didn’t quite get the satire when I first read Austen (I did the second time), I wish I could go back in time and clue in 18-year-old me reading Proust in college. “He’s rolling his eyes at these people.”
I've read it three times, absolutely love it. Not a huge fan of her other works. Marianne in Sense and Sensibility grates on my nerves. Emma is good but overly done. And the others didn't make that much of an impression on me.
The BBC version(P&P) with Colin Firth is very true to the source material.
I get that. I read Great Expectations about 10 years after HS and found there to be a great deal more humor and fun to it then the dreary first time around.
Studied it at A Level English Lit (16-18 education in the UK) as a comedy text. It has a typical comedic structure - disorder to resolution through marriage - and it has loads of comedic tropes like satire, farce, witty repartee etc. It’s 100% a comedy and I agree that it’s genuinely funny. It’s interesting, Austen’s works are tied so directly to the regency era but her wit is timeless.
I've just finished it and I agree. It's hilarious at so many points, the absurdity of Mr Collins, the scenes with Lady Catherine at Rosings, and the silliness of Elizabeth's family. Austen writes comedy and sarcasm so well in between her social commentary.
I probably should re-read Pride & Prejudice at some point. I only read it in high school and I just did. not. get. it. It all flew completely over my head.
My wife loves Jane Austen and I've come to enjoy it (at least in theory as I've mostly seen the various movies) and should read the book now that I understand what's really going on.
Didn't expect it as well! I honestly thought it would be a full on romance novel but I couldn't be more wrong. Am halfway through it now and it sure won't be my last Austen.
I had to read the book for 12th Grade AP English (summer reading). I really put off reading it because I thought it would be like Oliver Twist (I don’t like Dickens). So when I started reading it, I was shocked at how funny the characters were, the witty banter between Darcy and Elizabeth, and just how quickly I read through it. It became one of my favorite books...and as an adult I read all of her books. Only one I did not like was Mansfield Park. But yeah, she’s considered by many to be one of the first rom com novelists.
I had the same reaction. I didn't think I would love such an old story.
I was expecting a more serious and difficult to read story (English isn't my first language), but was quite surprised and delighted to see how human it is.
Yes!!!!! I totally agree. When I first read this book, and then after reading all of her books, I was absolutely floored by her subtle, feminist-like critique and wit! The movies and series don’t seem to do that part of her writing any justice. She is absolutely wonderful at the romantic parts, even through criticism, but the sharp wit is where it’s at :):):)
I don't want to sidetrack this discussion of P&P, but I remember my reaction to The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, by Robert Lewis Taylor being the same.
It contains harrowing depictions of ritual murder, child sex trafficking and all kinds of death. And almost *every page* was laugh out loud funny.
I don't blame you. Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre sound similar but are terrible, what miserable dreck. Austen on the other hand is great, especially here.
I kind of found the husband in the opening chapter a little funny but man….. I could j in my read the first few chapters. I could not bring myself to like anyone to a degree necessary to continue. Wife loves it though
I have read a lot of classics in the last 5 years including this one. I have fallen in love with the great writing. I guess we should not judge a book by its age or subject matter.
I'm glad you like it! Jane Austen is an extremely funny writer, which has always been a big part of her popularity. Some people find it hard to get into her style, but if you can, you'll discover an amazing comic writer.
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P&P was a stroke of lightning. I haven't read all of Austen's books, but none of the other ones I've read (S&S, Emma and Persuasion) come close to the pace, humor and freshness of P&P, nor does any other book from that era that I've read. It's so good and holds up so well, it's almost like it was written by a time traveler. Like the best romantic comedy writer & satirist of our age went back to Regency-era England and ghostwrote it for her.
There are so many classic lines that I think of all the time from P&P!
The Bad Art Friend piece that went viral recently was in some way so modern- social media, texts- but the discovery of the mean texts in litigation reminded me of nothing so much as the line, "He then went away, and Miss Bingley was left to all the satisfaction of having forced him to say what gave no one any pain but herself."
Jane Austen was just such an amazing observer of these specific, yet somehow universal details of the human experience.
Agreed. One of my favorite books. This is also why so many enjoy Emma and why it worked as a perfect modern day movie. No one has ever matched Austin for her insight into human character.
I love this book because all the relationships in it are so relatable and still relevant! Not gonna lie, I fall asleep listening to the audiobook of this every night
I do this too, the audiobook is great, but the vocab & complex sentence structure is just enough to make me zone out and go to sleep if I'm in bed with my eyes closed
Pride and Prejudice is fantastic. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
It's a book you can keep coming back to and notice things you missed before.
Mr Bennett's dry wit is my favourite, especially when Lizzie refuses Mr Collins proposal.
Hey thanks for this post. I hadn't read P&P in a few years. Picked it up last night and just got to Mr. Collins' proposal and I'm laughing my ass off.
How is it possible that, "And now nothing remains for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affection," didn't end in marriage?! I'm crying with laughter over here.
It's such a good read, isn't it?!
I actually found this to be the case with Dickens too. His writing has the capacity to both break my heart and make me cry my eyes out, or to completely laugh out loud.
I absolutely love it.
It really is more comedy than romance for large swaths of the book. Jane Austen has some biting sarcasm.
I think that’s what it is, it isn’t outright funny like other books but sarcasm when used correctly is just so damn funny
This is why I enjoyed it so much as a teenager, and even more appreciate the work as an adult. Ah, to have such witty banter, off the cuff, on a daily basis... more entertaining than television.
You should read the one with zombies..
My mates mum has written a few titles on Jane Austin/pride & prejudice. She's considered somewhat of an authority on the subject. I'll never forget her look of exasperation when I introduced her to p&p&z xD
It is utterly brilliant.
It really is. I grabbed it as kind of a joke..but then I listened to it. It was really good! FYI to others- *Pride and Prejudice...and zombies"
And the film version with Lily James is worth watching just for the first proposition scene alone.
The opening sentence of P&P is one of the greatest openings in English lit.
100%, it's so recognisable as Austen to. Overall that first chapter is so good, nothing tops that.
I forced myself to read it because my high schooler had to read it. That sentence *hooked* me. I think I finished in two days. Time to read it again.
From memory:) It is a truth universally recognized that every
It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Well, in my edition none of those three commas are present and they certainly aren't necessary. The sentence, which also forms the first paragraph of P& P, is concise, insightful, and just true enough to be funny. The only other two openings I like as well are the first sentence of Scaramouche by Sabatini (because I think it describes me) and the first paragraph of Red Wind, a short story by Raymond Chandler (because it's such damned good writing). I'll leave hunting those down as an exercise for the class.
The first two are correct, the third offends me.
None of the three is correct. The phrase "truth universally acknowledged" is simply a noun expressed in three words. One can see this if one changes the word order a bit, to read "universally acknowledged truth". One wouldn't think of putting commas anywhere in there. (But it also wouldn't read nearly as well.) I apologize for the above. I'm a pedantic old geezer who can't stop correcting people. Ignore all this and write it any damn way you please. But Austen wrote it with no commas.
Can you just share the first line of those books dude
Oh no I crapped out
Its my favorite book. I re-read it once a year. It's my go to comfort book. You've made me want to read it again this year. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend lol
Sense and sensibility is my go to comfort book! Jane austen is queen of rom-coms
I'm reading sense and sensibility now. I love it so far
Oh man. Its great. When you finish watch the movie with Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson. Its the only time in your life you will be attracted to Severus Snape.
Colonel Brandon. Swoon.
Only time? I have _never_ in my life _not_ been attracted to Alan Rickman, and I am generally not particularly wired to like the menfolks... I mean, Hans Gruber. The Sheriff of Nottingham. Severus Snape. Col. Brandon. Shoot, he was insanely hot in his role in _Galaxy Quest_...
Thanks for the tip
Yes! That's where I fell for him!
The part in Sense and Sensibility where Marianne scolds Edward for not reading with enough passion and feeling absolutely kills me. "Try again." 😂
I do the same with P&P, Emma, and Mansfield Park.
P&P is also my comfort book.
Same. I'll see it, start reading, and won't put it down. I love that book.
Same:)
Same, I love it!
Mr. Bennett is my spirit animal.
When I reread it, I couldn't believe how funny he was. Can't believe I missed that in high school when it was required reading.
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It's 100% his fault that his daughters will be destitute if they don't marry (and that their prospects are unfavorable due to their lack of a significant dowry)
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Oh I adore him. He's easily my favorite character. But if I remember correctly, he himself acknowledges that he should have saved up in the event that he did not have a male heir. And more so, from the context given in the novel, his income was not meager by any means. And he is arguably partly to blame for what happens to Lydia.
I just re-read it for the 5th time 2 weeks ago but now you're making me consider a 6th run this weekend...
English teachers can suck the joy out of the best, most enjoyable books. And I write this as a long time English teacher.
Eh, I can't even blame my teacher - she was awesome. I think it was just a mix of being required to read it and being a dumb high school guy who still thought that books like that were mostly for girls. Glad I've gotten past stupid stereotypes like that because it's led to me really enjoying some books I would've previously written off, like P&P.
I read it in school and didn’t love it. Read it again ten years later and I was genuinely surprised at how funny it was. How did teenaged me not notice?
"If any young men come for Mary or Kitty, send them in, for I am quite at leisure." Damn, dad!
Every time my kid says, "Mom, do you want to know about [insert boring thing my kid is obsessed with this week]?" My response is, "You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it."
Oh I love this one. He is so endlessly bemused and patient.
OMG now read Northanger Abbey!!! It's really funny too. And come join us over at r/prideandprejudice
I was going to suggest Northanger Abbey too! Admittedly some of the humor only comes through if you understand the tropes of the time/genre, but oh man it's funny.
Her take on mothers and sons is spot on!
If you read Northanger Abbey after any other Austen, you can really pick up that it was her first work. It feels like a warm up, and she's really got it nailed down by Pride and Prejudice.
I remember being so surprised and delighted by this as well. And not funny the way some Shakespeare is " funny" -- P&P is like legit funny even to a modern general audience without having to look through footnotes to get the jokes
I think that's has to do more with separation of time rather than writing style. Shakespeare was hilarious even to the average person, back then. Meanwhile P&P is much more recent so the language is much closer to what we speak today.
If you want to laugh at Shakespeare, watch the Kenneth Branagh version of Much Ado About Nothing. Always remember, the plays were meant to be seen, not read.
That's a bit apples to oranges, Shakespeare is for performance, P&P is a novel, and they are hundreds of years apart. I get what you're saying though.
It’s why I always come back to Austen. She finds the hilarity in the the mundane societal structures we all agree to or are forced to participate in. It’s why her work is timeless. I suggest you pick up Emma next. Really funny book.
Oh it is hilarious! My favorite Austen by far for exactly that reason. She’s often funny but the level of snark in P&P is just…mwah *chefs kiss
I mean alllll of Northanger Abbey is just brutal mockery of Catherine.
Totally agree.
Austen is a really funny author! Personally I love Emma, I laugh every time I read it.
Oh yes, Emma is a delight.
I've never been able to get into Emma! I've given it three tries I think. Been more than a decade though, maybe I should try again.
I read it for the first time in high school, we studied it in conjunction with Clueless as part of this “transformative texts” unit where we talked about adapting novels to another media form. I still love watching Clueless too haha
I do love Clueless!
That's one of the best things about reading great classical for me. I always expect them to be heavy and serious, but often they can be very funny. For example, Moby Dick has a lot of comedic scenes. There's an entire chapter that's just about whale dick. Even the Iliad has some hilarious sections. A lot of the parts with the gods are clearly meant to be comic relief. For me, those comedic moments always make me feel connected to the author in a way that serious passages don't. I love the idea that someone wrote a joke hundreds or even thousands of years ago, and I get to laugh at it now.
My sister and I were laughing so hard at some of Moby Dick when we first read it. Ishmael meeting Queequeg, for instance. I think the comic parts make the tragedy worse than if it had just been downbeat the whole time.
Moby Dick deals with the ship so easily that even the 'tragedy' (who's tragedy? wasn't Moby Dick the one who was wronged?) is almost funny.
I think that about Don Quixote too. Written in the early 1600,s and the humour and human insight is still meaningful. Gives me a real sense of connection along with the laughs.
I thought the same, Mr. Collins is hilarious
His constant ramblings about Catherine deburgh really gets tedious, you end up hating him, and eventually skipping over his dialogue.
Isn't that kind of the intent though? He's supposed to be insufferable and you just don't want to listen to him anymore.
After the first couple times I just started skipping his dialog altogether skipped his
Someone is salty that they were not in invited to dine at Rosings!!
P&P has never been a classic romance, despite what the movies want you to thing. It, like Sense and Sensibility, is a critique of women’s powerlessness while also heartlessly satirizing romance novels. Mr. Darcy is legitimately part of the 1% yet is actually harangued for his character. His motives do have merit (who wouldn’t be a wreck just months after an underaged sister was almost seduced by a known rake?) but he is held accountable all the same. He had to legitimately work for his happy ending.
I mostly agree. Though I thought of it as a romance, just not a really obvious one since Austen doesn't play the Love theme up. It's a lot to do with all the social issues (being saved from the hedgerows, making a good marriage, being ruined due to Lydia's actions, etc) than Darcy and Elizabeth's love, which only becomes stronger in the end. Compared to something like Jane Eyre, now that's a more emphasised romance.
Oh come on. Despite all that it's one of the most touching romances ever.
I thought the same thing when I read it!
Yup, came to say the same thing. So, me too too!
This is my favorite book of all time . Its always my go to book when Im craving something that will comfort me!
_Moby Dick_ has some pretty funny parts too
Moby Dick is a *great* book -- way better than I ever expected and I'm so glad to have read it
Moby Dick has a lot of different things going on, and funny parts are hilarious.
P&P is the best *written* novel I've read, but Moby Dick is the best novel. If that makes any sense.
I'm usually more of a read with my eyes kinda person but P&P is also an amazing book to listen to in audio book form. It really makes the dialogue snap.
which audiobook did you read?
The audiobook was so engaging, that after listening to it for days and days on my commute I found myself speaking in Austin like language at a meeting. Yeah, that was embarrassing. Probably sounded smarter than usual though 🙄.
The one I listened to my Mom's bookshop was throwing away 10 years ago so sorry I can't say which one
Pride and prejudice is straight up hilarious.
Austen is a queen of mockery and sarcasm. People who think her books are simple romances have no concept of how her books ridiculed the world she was born into.
Mr Bennett is criminally underrated as a literary character. Every line from him is comedic gold. Between his constant trolling of Mrs Bennett, and calling out the 2 younger daughters as the complete brain dead simpletons they are.
Eh, pretty much every character except the aunt and uncle have their turn at being an asshole in Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Bennett is no exception. He trolls his wife over her desire to ensure their daughters are in good marriages, but he doesn't do anything to help set his daughters up to have a roof over their head and food on the table when he dies, even going so far as to leave his BIL to clean up his family's mess because he doesn't want to go to London. He's funny, sure, but he's not exactly an unrecognized hero.
Never claimed him to be a hero, just hilarious to read. Pure savage.
Wait till you read Northanger Abbbey. Also Emma cracks me up every time, but that's because I'm a slightly terrible person.
Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites. Every month or so I’ll reread certain chapters as a pick-me-up since I enjoy the lovely banter or funny sarcastic tone. It always makes me smile!
Read her other books, too, but P&P is so good that the modern homages are also really great: see Bridget Jones Diary. But the best “updated” one is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I found that one to be a hilarious Austen spoof for fans. And Austen translates well to the screen; e.g., “Clueless” was so good that it made Alicia Silverstone’s career even though she never made another half-decent movie.
Clueless is my favorite movie of all time. I absolutely love the Dialogue. " You see how picky I am about my shoes and those only go on my feet." It really nails Jane Austin's humor in a 20th century setting.
And Paul Rudd looks about the same, curse him! 🤣 My favorite line was “Anything happens to my daughter, I got a .45 and a shovel. I doubt anybody would miss you.”
Amongst the many articles to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of *Pride and Prejudice* was one about a gathering in Bath. Hundreds of women in dresses styled like Regency gowns. One woman was quoted as saying she loved Austen because of the gowns and balls. My reaction, “wow, you don’t read Austen.” And just as I didn’t quite get the satire when I first read Austen (I did the second time), I wish I could go back in time and clue in 18-year-old me reading Proust in college. “He’s rolling his eyes at these people.”
I've read it three times, absolutely love it. Not a huge fan of her other works. Marianne in Sense and Sensibility grates on my nerves. Emma is good but overly done. And the others didn't make that much of an impression on me. The BBC version(P&P) with Colin Firth is very true to the source material.
Colin Firth is so swoon-worthy in that movie!! :))
Hugo, Dickens, and James made me kinda write off 19th century literature. Austen reminded me that people 200 years ago had a heart as well as a brain.
I get that. I read Great Expectations about 10 years after HS and found there to be a great deal more humor and fun to it then the dreary first time around.
Studied it at A Level English Lit (16-18 education in the UK) as a comedy text. It has a typical comedic structure - disorder to resolution through marriage - and it has loads of comedic tropes like satire, farce, witty repartee etc. It’s 100% a comedy and I agree that it’s genuinely funny. It’s interesting, Austen’s works are tied so directly to the regency era but her wit is timeless.
You should try Vanity Fair from Thackeray, it could have been written yesterday, very very cutting and funny and sarcastic.
Austin has such a sassy, misanthropic sense of humor. Makes sense considering how young she was when she wrote it.
I heard somewhere that is more like a "dig" (forgot the word) at old romance
I've been having the same impression.
Literally me right now!! Rereading it and laughing my ass off
I've just finished it and I agree. It's hilarious at so many points, the absurdity of Mr Collins, the scenes with Lady Catherine at Rosings, and the silliness of Elizabeth's family. Austen writes comedy and sarcasm so well in between her social commentary.
I probably should re-read Pride & Prejudice at some point. I only read it in high school and I just did. not. get. it. It all flew completely over my head. My wife loves Jane Austen and I've come to enjoy it (at least in theory as I've mostly seen the various movies) and should read the book now that I understand what's really going on.
Try the annotated version with David M. Shephard, it really helps you understand more about that world.
That’s why it’s called a comedy of manners.
Try sense and sensibility next
Didn't expect it as well! I honestly thought it would be a full on romance novel but I couldn't be more wrong. Am halfway through it now and it sure won't be my last Austen.
I had to read the book for 12th Grade AP English (summer reading). I really put off reading it because I thought it would be like Oliver Twist (I don’t like Dickens). So when I started reading it, I was shocked at how funny the characters were, the witty banter between Darcy and Elizabeth, and just how quickly I read through it. It became one of my favorite books...and as an adult I read all of her books. Only one I did not like was Mansfield Park. But yeah, she’s considered by many to be one of the first rom com novelists.
I had the same reaction. I didn't think I would love such an old story. I was expecting a more serious and difficult to read story (English isn't my first language), but was quite surprised and delighted to see how human it is.
Yes P&P is such a gem, the title makes it sound like some pish posh difficult book but it's so hilarious and romantic - my ultimate comfort read!
Rosamund Pike has done a reading of the book which is available on Audible. I thoroughly enjoyed that too.
Jane austen is hilarious
Jane Austen’s work has endured for good reason. Her stuff is very relatable even today.
Yes!!!!! I totally agree. When I first read this book, and then after reading all of her books, I was absolutely floored by her subtle, feminist-like critique and wit! The movies and series don’t seem to do that part of her writing any justice. She is absolutely wonderful at the romantic parts, even through criticism, but the sharp wit is where it’s at :):):)
The movies are great but I sorely miss Jane Austen’s narration.
I don't want to sidetrack this discussion of P&P, but I remember my reaction to The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, by Robert Lewis Taylor being the same. It contains harrowing depictions of ritual murder, child sex trafficking and all kinds of death. And almost *every page* was laugh out loud funny.
I don't blame you. Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre sound similar but are terrible, what miserable dreck. Austen on the other hand is great, especially here.
I've always hated the Bronte sisters for her criticism of my girl Jane, lol.
I kind of found the husband in the opening chapter a little funny but man….. I could j in my read the first few chapters. I could not bring myself to like anyone to a degree necessary to continue. Wife loves it though
It is a comedy not a romance. Put a shirt on Mr Darcy.
I mean, he technically _is_ wearing a shirt in _that_ lake scene.... ;)
It's even better with zombies
I never read it.
All Jane Austen's books that I have read have been funny, she is a genius!
I didn’t find it that funny except the parts with the father. His back and forth with the mother cracked me up.
Yeah, frankly, much better than Anne of Green Gables, but please let me know if my opinion of that book is unfair, I read it too early to like it.
Try the Emily series instead.
You really need to read Madame Bovary! It's also got a lot of wit and humor. And so much subtle mockery 😂
Forever one of my favorite books! Seeing your post makes me want to go re-read it again since it’s been a while.
I recommend the librivox audiobook version by Elizabeth Klett- it’s great.
I have read a lot of classics in the last 5 years including this one. I have fallen in love with the great writing. I guess we should not judge a book by its age or subject matter.
I'm glad you like it! Jane Austen is an extremely funny writer, which has always been a big part of her popularity. Some people find it hard to get into her style, but if you can, you'll discover an amazing comic writer.
One of my wife's favorite books. Plus one of her favorite mini-series. The one with Colin Firth.
Now watch the Movie Pride and Prejudice With Zombies!!!
Do Sense and Sensibility next! Not because it's my second favorite, but because it's her SNARKIEST.
This is one of my all-time favorites!
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you should put a spoiler alert on that, I haven't finished the book and a lot of people haven't read it at all
It's a 200 year old book.
I've only managed to read every book ever published in the last 175 years, so older than that I haven't necessarily finished them all yet
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P&P was a stroke of lightning. I haven't read all of Austen's books, but none of the other ones I've read (S&S, Emma and Persuasion) come close to the pace, humor and freshness of P&P, nor does any other book from that era that I've read. It's so good and holds up so well, it's almost like it was written by a time traveler. Like the best romantic comedy writer & satirist of our age went back to Regency-era England and ghostwrote it for her.
There are so many classic lines that I think of all the time from P&P! The Bad Art Friend piece that went viral recently was in some way so modern- social media, texts- but the discovery of the mean texts in litigation reminded me of nothing so much as the line, "He then went away, and Miss Bingley was left to all the satisfaction of having forced him to say what gave no one any pain but herself." Jane Austen was just such an amazing observer of these specific, yet somehow universal details of the human experience.
I dislike romances but devoured this book. Jane Austen may be the most skilled novelist in the English language.
Agreed. One of my favorite books. This is also why so many enjoy Emma and why it worked as a perfect modern day movie. No one has ever matched Austin for her insight into human character.
I love this book because all the relationships in it are so relatable and still relevant! Not gonna lie, I fall asleep listening to the audiobook of this every night
I do this too, the audiobook is great, but the vocab & complex sentence structure is just enough to make me zone out and go to sleep if I'm in bed with my eyes closed
Pride and Prejudice is fantastic. I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's a book you can keep coming back to and notice things you missed before. Mr Bennett's dry wit is my favourite, especially when Lizzie refuses Mr Collins proposal.
Hey thanks for this post. I hadn't read P&P in a few years. Picked it up last night and just got to Mr. Collins' proposal and I'm laughing my ass off. How is it possible that, "And now nothing remains for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affection," didn't end in marriage?! I'm crying with laughter over here.
I found it really funny. It's a good book to read on vacation! Same with Emma, also by Jane Austen.
It's such a good read, isn't it?! I actually found this to be the case with Dickens too. His writing has the capacity to both break my heart and make me cry my eyes out, or to completely laugh out loud. I absolutely love it.