The blurb:
Pride and Prejudice, one of the most famous love stories of all time, has also proven itself as a treasured mainstay of the English literary canon. With the arrival of eligible young men in their neighbourhood, the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their five daughters are turned inside out and upside down. Pride encounters prejudice, upward mobility confronts social disdain, and quick-wittedness challenges sagacity. Misconceptions and hasty judgements bring heartache and scandal, but eventually lead to true understanding, self-knowledge, and love.
It's almost impossible to open Pride and Prejudice without feeling the pressure of so many readers having known and loved this novel already. Will you fail the test - or will you love it too? As a story that celebrates more unflinchingly than any of Austen's other novels the happy meeting-of-true-minds, and one that has attracted the most fans over the centuries, Pride and Prejudice sets up an echo chamber of good feelings in which romantic love and the love of reading amplify each other.
A little while back, I read Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal, which took Pride and Prejudice and transplanted it to turn-of-the-millennium Pakistan. I really enjoyed that one — the social aspect mapped pretty well onto Pakistan society, the characters' growth felt organic and not the result of 'must follow the P&P plot', so on. So, with some trepidation, given my history with Pride and Prejudice (see the Unmarriageable review for an explanation), I put it on reserve at the library and jumped into it when my turn came to borrow it.
I risk making myself look like an uncultured swine by posting this, but...
I hated it when I was in high school, it still does absolutely nothing for me. Zip, nada, nil. Not for me.
I can see where the jokes are supposed to be, I get what Austen's doing with the social commentary...but it just left me flat. I have read other older books — think Madame Bovary, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, I even have a copy of Canterbury Tales on the shelf next to me — so it's not that I can't read older books where the style of writing is so different. It's just not enjoyable for me, and there are so many more books out there that aren't dull slogs. So, yep, it's going on the list for 2025 as "that is certainly a book that I read in 2025" and that's about it.
One thing I do want to snarl about is the cover blurb and that ridiculous "Will you fail the test" bullshit. Reading is not an endurance challenge (or it shouldn't be). That's the sort of attitude that puts people off reading, in my experience — the notion that, if you don't like the things I do, it's a failing mark on a test. Read whatever books you like and, if you start one that doesn't do it for you, move onto another one. There are so many to choose from. Join your local library, dive in, find the authors and stories and books you love and chuck that "will you fail the test" rubbish in the bin where it belongs.
Started: 26 July 2025
Finished: 3 August 2025
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