BOOK REVIEW – Pride and Prejudice – Laia Cantarell

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Laia Cantarell – 3r A

Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen. Jane Austen published the book anonymously, because at those times women couldn’t write books. To sign she used as “By A Lady”. It was published in 1813, and it’s set in that year. The main plot is the difference between the superficial and the essential, and how the protagonist learns from her own mistakes.

 

Pride and Prejudice is the story of the Bennet’s family. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have five daughters: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia. Their mother wants them all to get married, because only a son can inherit their family’s house. So when Mr. Bingley, a rich man from the North of England, comes into their neighbourhood, Mrs. Bennet was happy. Mr. Bingley falls in love with Jane and Jane falls in love with him. In the meantime Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley’s friend who spends with him his holidays, falls in love with Elizabeth and proposes to her, but she refuses. She hates him because  a young soldier, Mr. Wickham, told her that Darcy had a dark past. In the meantime Mr. Bingley leaves his house and goes to London abandoning Jane who finds her hopes deceived. One of Darcy’s relatives tells Elizabeth that it was Darcy who convinced Mr. Bingley to leave Jane and go to London. So Elizabeth’s hate towards Darcy grows more and more. But when Elizabeth’s youngest sister runs away with Mr. Wickham Darcy finds them in London and persuades Wickham to marry Lydia by paying him a lot of money. When Elizabeth finds out how Darcy helped her sister, she realizes she loves him too, and accepts his wedding proposal. In the meantime, Bingley comes back and asks Jane to marry him. She accepts. So there’s a happy ending: Jane marries Bingley and Elizabeth marries Darcy.

 

The main characters of the book are:

Mr. Bennet:  Mr. Bennet is best known for his sarcastic wit, often sharpened on his family members (particularly his wife). He appears happiest when left alone and will typically choose the path of the least resistance, without consideration of the consequences. While his love of independence has kept his family out of debt, he has not bothered to make any plans or provisions for them after his death, at first this was because he intended to have a son who would take responsibility for Mrs. Bennet and any other children and later this was due to habit.

 

Mrs. Bennet:  Mrs. Bennet is a miraculously tiresome character. Noisy and foolish, she is a woman consumed by the desire to see her daughters married and seems to care for nothing else in the world.

 

Jane Bennet Bingley: Jane Bennet is the most beautiful of the five Bennet sisters as well as the most beautiful woman in the local Meryton neighbourhood. She is the eldest daughter, and she is the wife of Charles Bingley.

 

Mr. Bingley:  He is married to Jane Bennet Bingley and is the brother of Louisa Hurst and Caroline Bingley. Charles Bingley is a handsome, good-natured, and wealthy young gentleman, who rents Netherfield Park near Longbourn. He is contrasted with his friend Mr. Darcy as being kinder and more charming and having more generally pleasing manners, although not quite so clever and experienced in the art of combat. He’s an influenced by others.

 

Elizabeth Bennet Darcy: Elizabeth is the protagonist. She is charming, intelligent and converses as brilliantly as anyone. Elizabeth, is the basic model of how the woman should be for Jane Austen. Although she is not beautiful or successful, but thanks to her intelligence, she marries the most important man, Mr. Darcy, although social barriers put them at odds, at least initially.

 

Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy: Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is a wealthy gentleman. He is the eldest child and only son.  He is proud and inconsiderate. Jane describes him as clever but also as “haughty, reserved, and fastidious”.

 

Mary Bennet: She’s the third of the Bennet daughters. She’s the only Bennet daughter with no romantic interest or involvement in the book. Every story needs an ugly duckling. Mary’s issue is that she never transforms into the swan. She must be between 18 and 20 years old.

 

Kitty Bennet: Kitty is the fourth daughter, between Mary and Lydia. She has become almost as proud and stupid as Lydia. She is jealous that Lydia is her mother’s favourite daughter.

 

Lydia Bennet Wickham: Lydia Bennet is an immature sixteen-year-old girl. She’s the youngest from the Bennet family, and she just cares about getting married to a handsome young man.

 

Mr George Wickham: He is a childhood friend of Mr Darcy. He seems really nice, because he’s a young, handsome man, but you should never judge a boy for his cover. Almost everything he cares about is money, and being rich.

 

Miss Caroline Bingley: She is the younger sister of Charles Bingley.  Caroline is selfish, hypocritical, all negative qualities. His wish is to have Darcy as her husband. She starts being friendly with Jane Bennet, but later conspired with Louisa and Darcy to separate Jane and Charles.

 

Lady Catherine de Bourgh: She’s Mr Darcy’s aunt and patron of Collins. She is self-centred, proud and modesty isn’t among her list of virtues. Nobody has more pleasure than her. What she does, she does it perfectly and what she doesn’t do, she would do it perfectly if she did it.

 

Charlotte Lucas Collins: She is the eldest daughter of Sir William and Lady Lucas. She is the wife of William Collins, and a good friend of Elizabeth Bennet. She’s 27 years old, but she’s very beautiful. Charlotte ends up marrying Mr Collins.

 

Mr and Mrs Gardiner: Mr. Gardiner is Mrs. Bennet‘s sensible and intelligent brother. Mr. Gardiner is a sensible and gentleman with easy and pleasant manners. Her wife is younger than Mrs. Bennet. They have four children, two boys and two girls. They’re both very kind and helpful, especially to Elizabeth.

 

I don’t like this novel very much. This novel is very messy. There are many names and most times they speak by the last name. There are many people and it is a little chaos. The story leaves a message, you can not judge a person by your first impression, as Elizabeth did with Mr. Darcy, since in the end they end up marrying. The vocabulary has helped me to follow the plot, since there were words that without the vocabulary I wouldn’t have understood.