PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

NOVELIST: JANE AUSTEN

BOOK REVIEW WRITTEN BY FATIMA JAHANZEB

TITLE: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (formerly known as “First impressions”)

AUTHOR: JANE AUSTEN

ISBN: 0-14-062022-2

PUBLICATION: PENGUIN POPULAR CLASSICS

COPYRIGHT: 1994

NUMBER OF PAGES: 299

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

The greatest of all the novelists of manners of Georgian era or any other and the one who

raised the whole genre of novel to a new level of art, was JANE AUSTEN.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is often regarded as the greatest of English women novelists on the

strength of her six completed novels. Noted particularly for their sparkling social comedy and

accurate vision of human relationships, they are still as widely read today as they have been

ever. In the daily routine of visits, sewing, shopping, gossip, and other trivial matters she

found the raw material for her novels. The world she presents is an eighteenth-century world

in its habits, tastes, and appearances.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune,

must be in want of a wife.” The opening lines of the novel clearly portray the main theme of

the novel. The problem posed is the marrying off of the elder Bennet girls, having beauty and

intelligence but inconsiderable fortune.

The story shows characters like the beautiful and charming Jane, witty and high spirited

Elizabeth, charming Bingley, proud Darcy, gallant Wickham, scheming Miss Bingley, not to

forget the foolish and garrulous Mrs Bennet and her self-defensively offensive husband. Each

reveals his character in conversation, helped by an occasional flashing forth by the author of a

brief descriptive remark. Mrs Bennet’s desire of getting all five of them married whatever the

age, as soon as possible, reveals the defects of her character in a richly comic manner.

The novel mainly follows Elizabeth Bennet, a headstrong and prejudiced young lady, who

encounters several men, reflecting on their personalities, but being so prejudiced not to accept

any of them. The proposal of Mr Collins is met with scorn and ridicule by Elizabeth. The

character development of Elizabeth is beautifully shown in the novel, where she first refuses

Darcy due to his pride but later-on realisation of his true character, accepts him. The story has

some deeper overtones which emerge when Charlotte Lucas agrees to marry Collins or when

Lydia is discovered to have run off with Wickham, with no prospect of marriage. Jane falls in

love with Mr Bingley and gets married to him, after a couple of misunderstandings between

them get solved. Mrs Bennet in the end of the novel gets her three daughters married and is

very happy, and Mr Bennet is more awake to his duties after the mishap of Lydia.

The novel shows the highest degree of craftsmanship. There is precision and style which

carries the reader through the novel with ease and spirit. The speed and skill with which the

author moves into the story are remarkable. In the novel, real wit and virtue go hand in hand

for the principal characters. It has often been remarked that, although the Napoleonic wars
were going on throughout the times of Jane Austen’s writing career, she keeps mention of

them out of her novels, in which soldiers appear only as attractions for the girls or in some

similar social capacity.

Jane Austen said of her novel, “It is rather too light and bright and sparkling; it wants shade.”