The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen: Volume II: Pride and Prejudice
by: Jane Austen
List Price: $29.95
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Dewey Decimal Number: 823.7
EAN: 9780192547026
ISBN: 019254702X
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: November 17, 1988
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Sales Rank: 720719
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
This is the first of the novels published in 'The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen' series, illustrated with early nineteenth-century plates. From its famous opening sentence, the story of the Bennet family and of the novel's two protagonists, Elizabeth and Darcy, told with a wit that its author feared might prove 'rather too light and bright, and sparkling, ' delights its most familiar readers as thoroughly as it does those who encounter it for the first time. And while she entertains us, Jane Austen teaches us the wisdom of balance, the folly of 'pride' and 'prejudice.'
Amazon.com Review:
'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.'
Next to the exhortation at the beginning of Moby-Dick, 'Call me Ishmael,' the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice must be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British mating rituals with a sure hand and an unblinking eye. As usual, Austen trains her sights on a country village and a few families--in this case, the Bennets, the Philips, and the Lucases. Into their midst comes Mr. Bingley, a single man of good fortune, and his friend, Mr. Darcy, who is even richer. Mrs. Bennet, who married above her station, sees their arrival as an opportunity to marry off at least one of her five daughters. Bingley is complaisant and easily charmed by the eldest Bennet girl, Jane; Darcy, however, is harder to please. Put off by Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity and the untoward behavior of the three younger daughters, he is unable to see the true worth of the older girls, Jane and Elizabeth. His excessive pride offends Lizzy, who is more than willing to believe the worst that other people have to say of him; when George Wickham, a soldier stationed in the village, does indeed have a discreditable tale to tell, his words fall on fertile ground.
Having set up the central misunderstanding of the novel, Austen then brings in her cast of fascinating secondary characters: Mr. Collins, the sycophantic clergyman who aspires to Lizzy's hand but settles for her best friend, Charlotte, instead; Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy's insufferably snobbish aunt; and the Gardiners, Jane and Elizabeth's low-born but noble-hearted aunt and uncle. Some of Austen's best comedy comes from mixing and matching these representatives of different classes and economic strata, demonstrating the hypocrisy at the heart of so many social interactions. And though the novel is rife with romantic misunderstandings, rejected proposals, disastrous elopements, and a requisite happy ending for those who deserve one, Austen never gets so carried away with the romance that she loses sight of the hard economic realities of 19th-century matrimonial maneuvering. Good marriages for penniless girls such as the Bennets are hard to come by, and even Lizzy, who comes to sincerely value Mr. Darcy, remarks when asked when she first began to love him: 'It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.' She may be joking, but there's more than a little truth to her sentiment, as well. Jane Austen considered Elizabeth Bennet 'as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print'. Readers of Pride and Prejudice would be hard-pressed to disagree. --Alix Wilber
Average Rating: 
Rating:
- best Austen novel - so farAfter seeing a number of adaptations, I finally decided to read all of
Austen's novels. Northanger ... Read More
Rating:
- DrivelThis is a terrible novel. I was expecting a "classic" when I read this and the only reason that I can think ... Read More
Rating:
- Clasic Romance NovelJane Austen is an amazing author! I loved this book. I got a little frustrated with it sometimes, but I'm very ... Read More
Rating:
- Beautiful ClassicThis book is a timeless and beloved classic. It's a beautiful story of class in Jane Austen's time that appeals ... Read More
Rating:
- Worth paying for on the KindleKindle owners hopefully are aware of the wealth of free editions of the classics which are available through Feedbooks ... Read More
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