Friday, May 22, 2009

Remind me not to read any more "classics"!

Pride and Prejudice Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen


My review


rating: 2 of 5 stars
I have finally finished listening to this unabridged version of Pride & Prejudice and am going to give my honest opinion, at the risk of causing an uproar! Let me first say that Yes, I do realise it was written nearly 200 years ago and that “that’s how things were then”. I am SO glad I was born when I was and not back then. Ok, here we go.

I DIDN’T LIKE IT. There, I’ve said it, it is out in the open! I didn’t like Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. The characters were awful, the story was dull and OMG did it drag on. I didn’t have a print copy of this but I can’t imagine how many pages were taken up each time someone had the tiniest thing to say but dragged it out over at least 10 minutes! GET ON WITH IT!!! I know they didn’t really have much to do in those days (the rich people anyway, I'm sure the poor were working very hard to make ends meet - but then they didn't have "ten thousand a year") but they must have done some things quickly. Oh yes, deciding to marry someone when you’d only just met them, they did that pretty quick!

Mrs Bennet was shallow, all she wanted from life was to see her daughters married to the richest man possible and when she despaired of that happening she just wanted to get any of them married off. Jane was far too sickly sweet and believed everyone to be the same. Lydia – what an airhead! And who was the mysterious Mary?

Mr Collins, I wanted to smack him in the chops. His proposal to Elizabeth was priceless, not once was there a mention of love, only what it would mean to his standing in the community to be a married man. How Lady Catherine Debourg (?sp) could talk to Elizabeth the way she did near the end when she thought she was going to marry Darcy. How rude!!!

Overall, I thought they were all a bunch of posh snobs who were all looking out for themselves. Elizabeth had a bit of something about her, at least she didn’t get a headache and stay bedridden for two weeks like her sister, but I still didn’t particularly like her either.

Please do comment if you like, I’d really like to know why this is such a much loved book!


View all my reviews.

5 comments:

Linz Knits Now said...

OMG!!!!I feel exactly the same as you...I HAD to read it at school and again at A level but it was crap...infact I was just as honest in my exam and I got a grade B, so perhaps.....everyone finds it dull but would dare admit it??? lol best laugh ever followed with 'hell yeah' ;)

Sarah said...

I just finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and it gives it a bit more bite. Or just watch the movie with Colin Firth!

Anonymous said...

I haven't got the energy to argue as wouldn't know where to start. You'll be telling me you're a daily mail reader next!

If you read about Jane Austen, you'll see that you have had the appropriate reaction sort off... she is a great social commentator and loved to 'send people up'.

You know who this is!
Just a shame you're going to write off the entire 'cannon' or just Austen after reading one book...

Can't wait to get to Hay to talk to fellow literary appreciators!

Anonymous said...

Ladybirdlinz - you got a B as you probably wrote a very good piece! It doesn't matter if you like it or don't with literature - thats the beauty of it! As long as you can argue your case. Well done!

Linz Knits Now said...

Cheers anonymous...and there's me thinking honesty pays. :D