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The novel's opening line,
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” gave me an idea that it will be another boring love story. But as I did finish reading it, I've realized and unlocked
Jane Austen's way of writing the novel. Pride and Prejudice is evidently a novel full of wit and charm down from the author up to its characters. Jane had given justice as to what classical novel is and, to have it as my first novel being read gave me a well so good impression to novels.
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The Story
This
is the story of Elizabeth Bennet and her family, which includes her
parents and her four sisters. Living in England in the early 1800′s,
the focus of young women was on who they were to be compatible with and
subsequently marry. In the story of this family, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet
have no male heir to their estate. Subsequently, their home and wealth
is slated to go to a cousin, Mr. Collins upon Mr. Bennet’s death. As
such, it is seemingly more important to Mrs. Bennet than other mothers
to marry off her five daughters as soon as possible to ensure that they
are cared for in the event of Mr. Bennet’s passing.
The story of Pride & Prejudice starts
when a handsome and wealthy man, Mr. Bingley, comes to rent an estate
not far from The Bennet Family’s. As he takes possession of this fine
rental, the families in the surrounding area buzz with excitement and
anticipation that this fine gentleman will choose one of their daughters
as a bride. Mrs. Bennet is no exception. At a ball, Elizabeth’s
older and beautiful sister, Jane, becomes the object of Mr. Bingley’s
affections. It is also at this ball that Elizabeth (“Lizzy”) overhears a
handsome stranger, Mr. Darcy, state that she is not “handsome” enough
to be considered for a dance with him at the ball. Mr. Darcy is a very
wealthy, handsome, and brooding stranger whom Lizzy will soon not be
able to avoid.
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This
story takes readers from the time of that ball until well over a year
later. During such time, The Bennet family is faced with an issue of
family honor when their daughter Lydia runs off with a handsome, however
untrustworthy military man, Mr. Wickman. In addition, Mr. Collins
makes an attempt to marry into the family to find himself a suitable
wife. Thankfully, The Bennet Daughters are spared despite Mrs. Bennet’s
urging to accept his long-winded proposal. However, the most important
story within this novel is the love story between Elizabeth and Mr.
Darcy. The reader observes her initial disdain for him grow into an
irresistible love that she can not deny.
The Movie
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I was happy to find out that the novel had been filmed in the year of 2005 starred by Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as Fitzwilliam Darcy directed by Joe Wright. I was so eager to watch the film but then I was a little bit disappointed after watching knowing that some of those what I've read weren't reflected in the movie. I think it's a normal feeling a reader would have once the story he read will be put into big screen. At least, some of those profound lines I got from reading were evident in the film such as:
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"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."
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"You have bewitched me body and soul and I love, and love, and love you. And never wish to be parted from you from this day on."
More of the "Quotes"
CHAPTERS 1-24
“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”
-
Fitzwilliam Darcy
“The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by
the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of
the performance." - Fitzwilliam Darcy
"Affectation of candour is common enough— one meets with it
everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design— to take the
good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing
of the bad— belongs to you alone." - Elizabeth Bennet
"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often
used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride
relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have
others think of us." -
Mary Bennet
"If a woman is partial to a man, and does not endeavour to conceal it, he must find it out." -
Elizabeth Bennet
"I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow." - Fitzwilliam Darcy
"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment." - Fitzwilliam Darcy
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner
one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my
own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” - Fitzwilliam Darcy
"Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of
humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an
indirect boast." - Fitzwilliam Darcy
"The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the
possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the
performance." -
Fitzwilliam Darcy
"I have made no such pretension. I have faults enough, but they are
not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I
believe, too little yielding— certainly too little for the convenience
of the world... My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost is lost forever." - Fitzwilliam Darcy
"Interested people have perhaps misrepresented each to the other. It is,
in short, impossible for us to conjecture the causes or circumstances
which may have alienated them, without actual blame on either side." - Jane Bennet
"Nobody can tell what I suffer! -- But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied." - Mrs. Bennet
". . . resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation." - Mr. Collins
"There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I
think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with
it."
"You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of
principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or me, that
selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger security for
happiness."
. . .our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does."
“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened
at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to
intimidate me.”
CHAPTERS 25-36
"Only the deepest love can persuade me into matrimony."
“A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.”
“We are all fools in love”
“I have been used to consider poetry as "the food of love. Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”
"We do not suffer by accident. It does not often happen that
the interference of friends will persuade a young man of independent
fortune to think no more of a girl whom he was violently in love with
only a few days before."
“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”
“I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said
so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane;
she only smiles, I laugh.”
"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened
at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to
intimidate me."
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"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess... of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot
catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their
concerns, as I often see done."
"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened
at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to
intimidate me."
CHAPTERS 37-61
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the
dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever
so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least.
They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have
their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible
of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.”
"He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal."
"My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever."
"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."
"Your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the
contentment arising from them is not of philosophy, but, what is much
better, of innocence."
"As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to
correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them
in pride and conceit."
"I cannot fix on the hour, or the look, or the words, which laid the
foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I
had begun."
“In vain I have struggled. My fee lings will not be
repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love
you.”
To seal, Pride and Prejudice for me is one among those great classical novels (I'm not being bias since it's the first novel I've read but then it really is) for the reason that the author herself had made a link between her write-up to what we have at hand in our real world scenarios: marriage, etiquette, and all sorts of relationships. So Jane, you have me with my two thumbs up! :)
