Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin - 1812

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin is on every list of 100 greatest novels, often considered in the top ten best.  I have seen posts by book bloggers talking about having read it fifty times.  I am so glad to have at last had my first encounter with this master work of the English novel.  Better late than never.

I will keep my observations mercifully brief.  Set in small town England in 1810, Austin gifts us with the Bennett family, mother, father, and five daughters.  The parents call each other Mr or Mrs Bennett.  All but the youngest daughter is at or close to age where the search for a husband is of paramount import.  Austin's world may be small but she illuminating depicts it.

I love the tone of Austin's prose.  Her observations on characters can be very illuminating.  As a father of three unmarried daughters 21, 23 and 25 my wife and I often semi-joke about good matches for them.  Our youngest is friends with a boy in college with her whose family owns a big luxury resort. I told her tell the boy to "call me daddy".  

The relationships are very interesting.  I will next read her Sense and Sensibility.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin (1813)

Around 1960 or so in The Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman I first was made aware I needed to read Jane Austin's Pride and Predjudice.  I remembered trying it then but I was not ready for it yet.  The most recent time I read a glowing endorsement of the book was in Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose, published in 2014.  Many book bloggers say it is their favorite novel of all time.  

I am so glad I have at long last read this wonderful book.

Which Austin novel should I Read next?

Who is your favorite sister?

Best match? 

Mel u