Pride & Prejudice

No list of the world’s greatest romantic stories is complete without Jane Austen’s most lauded work, Pride & Prejudice. I will admit now that this most certainly wasn’t the first time I was reading P&P. However, it’s something I do as often as I can. As far as I’m concerned no greater romance was ever written than that of Darcy and Elizabeth (in close competition, of course, with Rhett and Scarlett).

There is something about bad boys, isn’t there? Though of course, Darcy with his English aristocracy polish hardly counts as a bad boy.  Or at least, by today’s standards. But his disdainful snobbery that went with the generous master and loving brother is a combination that’s hard to resist. Even more so when it all unbends entirely before an unlikely woman.

The book may be set in a bygone England and at first look you’d be tempted to dismiss it as un-relatable but Elizabeth Bennet’s very correct “I would be prepared to forgive him his vanity had he not offended mine” has stood the test of time, as have pride and prejudice and the havoc they can play in our lives.

When Jane Austen wrote nobody told her to show, not tell, I’m sure and yet the irritating Mrs Bennet and her younger daughters, the charming yet weak-willed Bingley, his pretentiously ambitious sisters, the slightly unrealistically angelic Jane Bennet, the intelligence of Elizabeth and the sheer ‘Darciness’ of Darcy are all as real to us as though we knew them personally. Our hearts melt and swoon and break as Darcy tries not to and then fails to not fall in love with Elizabeth.

What do I say! There’s just something about Pride & Prejudice that can make even the most unrelenting heart beat a little bit faster.

Even though reading a prosy classic might not be everybody’s cup of tea, if you’re a fan of romances you’ve missed out on something if you haven’t been a part of Elizabeth and Darcy’s world.

I’d give this one a 5 any day of the year. 🙂