Books: Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen stories are the girliest indulgences I partake in. I have seen the adaptations, but have never actually sat down with the original material until now. Since "Pride and Prejudice" if my favorite, I thought I would start with it.

It was even more enjoyable than I would have thought. She is a great author and paints a great picture of life in that era. It was the first story she wrote, but "Sense and Sensibility" was the first published. P&P was originally called "First Impressions" and was influenced by her first love as a young girl. Jane Austen and her sister never married, but she made sure that all of her characters did for both love and fortune.

The basic story is about the Bennett family (5 girls - Lizzie, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Lydia) and their interactions with the Bingley and Darcy families. Lots of miscommunications and misplaced hatred and affections. Very girly indeed.

The A&E/BBC version was very faithful. They switched a few things around, but overall it was quite good and still a favorite of mine. One thing I don't like that they did (now that I have read the book) is they made a turning point for Lizzie happen much later. One thing I did like was a way they arranged a scene that gave it a great deal more impact than it had in the book.

There was a more recent version of the book made into a movie with Kiera Knightly, but it was not very faithful and is an almost neutered version. In addition to this being a poor version of it, it has been forever ruined for me by my friend, Andy. He was dragged by his wife to see it with me and our friend, Matt, and kept asking when the velosoraptors were going to show up. There is one scene toward the end when Mr. Darcy is walking through a field that I can't help picturing him being attacked by a velosoraptor now. Thankfully, this scene doesn't appear in any other version so only this movie is ruined by it.