I have read this book, and was not impressed by it. However, it seems to be a favorite of at least 2/3 of the intelligent women I meet (although I've never met a man who claimed to like it.) And it's not that I don't care for Victorian literature; I like the Brontes, Dickens, Thackeray, etc. So I'm wondering what the better-read of you people think of this book, which I found to be nothing special.

Incidentally, I am posting this in Chit Chat, rather than Entertainment, because I want to give people the opportunity to post boobs in the thread if they are so inclined.

8/1/2010 6:38:36 PM

k

8/1/2010 6:40:05 PM

Ok, so I'm educated to be a HS English teacher.
And I have to admit that I never read Pride and Prejudice.
In HS, I just watched the long ass movie and got a better grade on the test than some of the folks that read the book.



Maybe this belongs in the confessions thread.

8/1/2010 6:40:32 PM

I consider myself a man and, I suppose, generally well-educated and well-read (well enough to know just how much excellent material exists that I have NOT read): I love Jane Austen's works. Mansfield Park is my favorite: those who are CH 201 veterans probably remember at least one quote from that work: "Oh, do not attack me with your watch. A watch is either too fast or too slow. Do not attack me with a watch."

In my personal list, I put P&P #3 after MP and Persuasion .

I was not always so sanguine about "incomparable Jane," but a philosophy colleague at my previous institution sat me down for a series of lunch talks about MP: I am a convert of sorts, especially after reading some critical essays on Jane Austen and Aristotelian influence.

8/1/2010 8:36:37 PM

and zombies?

8/1/2010 8:37:36 PM

Im here for the boobs.

8/1/2010 8:38:04 PM

I liked the book a lot and I have a penis.

8/1/2010 8:39:46 PM

and zombies

8/1/2010 8:40:40 PM

here are some boob pics stolen from other threads











I also kinda get a kick out of posting boobs in a thread about Jane Austen...I like to think she is spinning in her grave

8/1/2010 8:54:01 PM

don't joke about zombies.

8/1/2010 8:55:14 PM

Never read it.

But this girl has:
[image]http:// http://media2.newsobserver.com/smedia/2010/07/30/23/youngresearcher%202_G3K1I7LJ0.1+BROWN3.NE.072610.CEL.JPG.embedded.prod_affiliate.156.jpg[/image]


She's 15, doing grad research at the vet school this summer, and has a horse named Mr. Bingley.




I'm posting this because this thread is like 2 of the three times I've heard mention of Pride and Prejudice and it was within two days of each other. The other one was the episode of Community.

8/1/2010 9:14:29 PM

In today's world, Jane would have been a gold digger. Elizabeth would have went for the artsy/musician types. Charlotte would have married some corner boy from her high school that took a job in a local factory. The other Bennett girls would have gotten knocked up in their teenage years. Lydia would have also probably developed a drug habit.

And Mr. and Mrs. Bennett would have been divorced.

8/1/2010 9:47:20 PM

Never read it, but I figure eventually I will. It sounds boring to me, so I'm dragging on my heels on reading it. I might really like it though, because sometimes my perceptions are wrong. I thought I would hate The Bell Jar based on incorrect assumptions and now it's one of my favorite books.

8/2/2010 12:04:00 AM

5^ I'd like to touch their pride and prejudice.

8/2/2010 12:05:34 AM

Quote :

"Elizabeth would have went for the artsy/musician types. "

Elizabeth would be a plain hipster. She'd get pissed off because Darcy didn't carry PBR at his parties and his music was too mainstream.

8/2/2010 12:10:40 AM

Girls like this book because they like the idea that Elizabeth essentially does what she wants (certainly doesn't marry the man her mother would like her to in order to secure their father's estate, etc) but ends up with a wealthy man she's in love with. They find that part of the book nothing short of romantic and idealize it.

This is all well and nice, but the book always makes me wonder exactly how feminist P&P can ever truly be. Austen is usually lauded for her female characters, and I fully agree that they are at least characters with their own sense of autonomy and agency which is extremely rare of books from her time. So Austen imbues them with all of this life only to have them still stuck in the same rigid system of marriage and property in the end.

I personally enjoy Austen's wit and use of irony the best: the first line of the novel, basically everything Mr. Bennet says, Lizzy's retorts, etc.

I find books by the Brontes (especially Jane Eyre) extremely heavy-handed and oversymbolic. I prefer Austen's subtlety.

8/2/2010 8:16:41 PM

even when they added zombies into it, it was a boring read to get through

[Edited on August 2, 2010 at 8:21 PM. Reason : arrrrr]

8/2/2010 8:20:55 PM

not gonna lie, somebody told me there were tits in here


the only reason I'm up in here


fuck Jane Austen

8/2/2010 8:35:33 PM

^^^

Quote :

"Girls like this book because they like the idea that Elizabeth essentially does what she wants (certainly doesn't marry the man her mother would like her to in order to secure their father's estate, etc) but ends up with a wealthy man she's in love with. They find that part of the book nothing short of romantic and idealize it."

That actually makes sense, although I don't think I could have figured it out by myself.

Quote :

"So Austen imbues them with all of this life only to have them still stuck in the same rigid system of marriage and property in the end."

She went, perhaps, as far as her upbringing, environment and reader-base would allow her to go.

Incidentally, Jane Eyre, while a wonderful story, is certainly open to criticism from any number of angles (heavy-handedness certainly being one of them.) Wuthering Heights, on the other hand, is imo an extremely subtle, profound and original novel, which will always be one of my all-time favorites. <3

8/2/2010 8:53:09 PM

I like Pride and Prejudice.

As far as Wuthering Heights is concerned: it was one of the few books I've read with so much praise behind it that was just so disappointing to me. I was extremely bored by it. I think it is the only book my wife and I have disagreed on as far as whether we enjoyed it or not (not simply disagreed on details, motives, etc.). The story wasn't terrible and there were some really, really well-written passages (the section about "the air swarmed with catherines" is probably my favorite part of the book), but to be perfectly honest it just really dragged and dragged and moved so slowly for me.

I've certainly read books I disliked much more, they just weren't books that were "classics" or hyped up as much to begin with so I wasn't as disappointed.

8/2/2010 11:32:42 PM

I've never read it. I just bought a Nook from B&N and Pride and Prejudice was already loaded on as a free book, so that just confirms the fact that the book sucks and they have to give it away

8/3/2010 2:00:04 AM

And zombies.

8/3/2010 8:51:52 AM

I also came here to post and Zombies.

8/3/2010 12:12:50 PM

^^^^

yeah, it's definitely like some exotic dish/woman which one might like very much, yet simultaneously see how others would just "meh" over

8/3/2010 4:46:16 PM