Pride and Prejudice (Oxford World's Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Pride and Prejudice is a great read!
Review: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a charming and witty excursion through the trials and tribulations of a middle-class English family at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Most of the action centers around a young spitfire named Elizabeth Bennet (Lizzy), who, along with her four sisters and mother and father, is trying to negotiate the erratic fortunes of love and courtship amid the complexities of economics and social class.

The independent and stubborn Lizzy meets the proud and very wealthy Mr. Darcy. His pride won't allow him to admit his feelings for her, and her adamant refusal to see his better qualities (her prejudice) stands in the way of their making a closer acquaintance. And so it goes for about three hundred pages -- but they are an intriguing three hundred pages of revelation, counter-revelation, comedy, and light suspense. However, to any experienced reader of romance novels, the ending will never seem much in doubt.

Since Pride and Prejudice is a nineteenth-century romance novel, a prospective reader should bear in mind that the vocabulary and syntax reflect the time in which it was written. It has been called a seminal work and is standard fare in high school and college English courses; it certainly deserves that distinction. However, loading all this importance onto the book will constrain the casual reader from enjoying it as I imagine Jane Austen would have preferred -- a simple work of entertainment.

The Oxford World's Classics edition includes a useful (but quite scholarly) introduction that provides the reader with a historical context for the novel and some background on Jane Austen.