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Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is the only book I have read a greater number of times than Pride and Prejudice. I do know for a fact they will both become my two “read-again-and-again” gems.
Hats off to Jane Austen for writing such a masterpiece that absolutely never disappoints: this novel is 370 pages of pure genius and utter brilliance. Having now read it three times (and of course watched the 1995 series billions of times), I feel like I know this story and its wonderful themes inside out! Full of messages like not taking unnecessary dislikes to people, good nature despite conflict, understanding everybody has reasons for outward appearance, and generally BEING POSITIVE.
This one follows the five Bennet sisters: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia. It also includes their very crazy, eccentric, society mother and their down-to-earth, sceptically witty and hilarious father. The story mainly focuses on Elizabeth Bennet but it does follow the love stories of nearly all the girls. Again, this is a book set in a similar time period and they live in a society in which women were socially obliged to marry well and therefore, Mrs. Bennet wants all her daughters to marry well so it will look good for the family.
At the beginning of the book, we meet a number of characters, one of which is the much-well-known Mr. Darcy! We meet Mr. Darcy and we find out that he is very proud and stern; he tends to look down his nose at people a lot and he’s very upper-class. Because of that, Elizabeth Bennet, who is very lively and generally finds amusement in people like that, develops a lot of prejudice against him. (Hence the title: Pride and Prejudice!)
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy (this isn’t a spoiler as it’s on the blurb!) have a love story going on and the book follows them as Darcy overcomes his pride and Lizzie overcomes her prejudice and their story follows on from there!
Elizabeth Bennet was another fantastic Jane Austen character, very lively and out there, always took things well, and got the perfect balance between positivity and maturity. She is my absolute favourite Jane Austen heroine. Jane Bennet was another character who I really understood, and the journey the poor girl has to go on throughout the novel. Mrs. Bennet is MAD and the chemistry between her and the hilariously sceptical Mr. Bennet is just perfect.
Mr. Darcy, I think, is my favourite Jane Austen hero because he is just so socially anxious and DREADFUL with girls that you can’t help but love him as he is revealed to be as charming and as emotionally strong and good-natured as he is. Mr. Darcy is there with Elinor Dashwood (S+S) and Lizzy as some of my all-time favourite Austen characters.
I don’t need to say anything about the writing: flawless.
What I will say is that, for me, this is one of those books which you read and you know from the first chapter whether or not you’ll love it or hate it. Personally, I absolutely clicked with this from Page 1.
But what I admire about this more than anything are the messages behind it. All of them are interwoven ingeniously into the story; it is full of morals one could take away from it.
You do not have to be an iconic, extroverted, popular society figure in order to be a good person;
Even if two people have differences, if they both have good morals, the situation can be resolved;
If someone has a bad opinion of you or insults you, don’t dwell on it and be the drama queen – just don’t care about it and carry on with life;
People who appear unlikeable socially can have different and truer personalities elsewhere; the same applies to you yourself;
Listen to both sides of the story;
Just be positive!
I can’t say anything more: it’s Pride and Prejudice! Obviously it’s fantastic! The story’s beautiful; the characters are wonderful; it’s marvellously written and the whole thing is a total gem of complete perfection.
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