It is the story of Elizabeth Bennett who lives with her fickle mother, gentlemanly father, and four sisters. Lizzie's mother has one thought on her mind.... To marry off her five daughters. When handsome (not to mention wealthy!) Mr. Bingley comes to town to live in his new house, Mrs. Bennett sets him up with her eldest daughter Jane. Along with Mr. Bingley comes his meddling sisters and his friend Mr. Darcy who has 10,000 pounds a year!
When Mr. Darcy refuses to dance at a ball and acts petty and rude all evening, everyone believes him to be a very proud and dis-likable man. Elizabeth particularly doesn't like him and forms all sorts of prejudices against him.
Both of them must forget their pride and their prejudice before the book's happy ending.
I loved Pride and Prejudice because it wasn't your average love story. In the early 1800's when Jane Austin wrote Pride and Prejudice, girls were very conservative and their only thoughts were of marrying into a good, and hopefully rich, family. This theme carries on through the book.
Something I especially liked was the humor! I wasn't expecting it to be such a funny book. My two favorite parts are humorous.
My first favorite part was near the beginning when Lizzie is visiting Mr. Bingley's home to visit her sick sister who they took in. Miss Bingley (Mr. Bingley's sister) is trying to impress Mr. Darcy. She asks Lizzie to "take a turn around the room" with her. Lizzie gets up and they start walking around the room. Then Miss Bingley asked Mr. Darcy to join them. Mr. Darcy replies with something like,
"You can have only one of two motives for walking around the room. One, you are in each others confidence and are going to discuss secret matters. Or two, you are aware of your figures and think that you can show them off better by walking around the room. If the first, I would only be in the way. If the second, I can better admire you from where I am."
My second favorite part is after Mr. Collins proposes to Lizzie. Mr. Bennett says to his daughter something like,
"Lizzie, from now on you must be a stranger to one of your parents. You mother will never speak to you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never speak to you again if you do!"
Another thing I loved about the book was the vocabulary. People had much bigger vocabularies two hundred years ago... In a video I once watched the person said that in Shakespeare's time the people had a working vocabulary of 54,000 words. Today we have a working vocabulary of 3,000 words. Isn't that amazing? That's partly the reason I love books written more than 60 years ago and partly why I love Shakespeare! As an aspiring author, I need a big vocabulary. Don't be afraid if I randomly start talking with bigger words!
Speaking of being an aspiring author... I am nearly finished with my novel! Only a few more scenes left to write. Then it's editing... I dislike editing very strongly. Oh well... A good story will come out of it!
The next book on my reading list is Jane Eyre.
Currently, though, I am still reading Sherlock Holmes. I finished two volumes of the short stories and am now reading "A Study in Scarlet." I really love Sherlock Holmes. The novels, as well as the short stories, are another example of a bigger vocabulary.
Here's a hint to reading Sherlock Holmes.... NEVER read "The Final Problem" (one of the short stories where Holmes "dies" ) late at night because you will want to read the next short story ( "The Adventure of the Empty House" ) right after you finish "The Final Problem" so you can find out what happens!
A few days ago we woke up to frost on the grass and mist in the air! It was so beautiful that I had to take Juliet outside for a few pictures. Here are some of my favorites:
With Christmas fast approaching I was given the important job of putting our Nativity Scene up. It took a few tries to get it right....
Baby Jesus attracts quite a crowd!
"A child a child crying in the night..." Where'd everyone go? No wonder he's crying!
Nope... Still not right....
Ahhh... There we go!
And finally, a collage that I made of the band Electric Mayhem and their saxophonist Zoot (yes... they are Muppets!) =D
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