Pride and Prejudice

This remains one of my most beloved books ever. I know that The Observer’s list picked Emma over my Pride and Prejudice and I understood why but somehow, Emma never quite warm up to me the way Pride and Prejudice did. I am a sucker for love stories, well told ones of course, though I had been known to read trashy novels from time to time! Yup, I am not ashamed to say that I read them, I would like to think that I am the type of person who would give anything a try!

This book by Jane Austen, tells the story of the quick-witted lovely Elizabeth Bennet and the haughty, handsome and of course, filthy rich Mr. Darcy. As expected, Lizzie and Darcy will end up together in holy matrimony by the end of the book, but their journey down the aisle is littered with prejudices and pride, hence the title. Their lives, which are worlds apart, one is rich in wealth and the other in wit, collides when Mr. Darcy’s friend, Mr. Bingley, decides to buy a house in the countryside. As Elizabeth’s mother would put it, "a single man of large fortune, must be in want of a wife” and sets about trying to get him married to one of her daughters. And that put into motion a string of events that would bring Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy together. Their first fateful encounter did not start in a friendly fashion, however, with Mr. Darcy uttering, “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me” when asked by Mr. Bingley why he would not ask Elizabeth to dance with him.

Mr. Darcy….man, if there ever was a man who had a stick up his arse ( to quote from Bridget Jones ) he is the one! To me, the one person who had successfully brought Mr. Darcy to life was Colin Firth in the BBC drama adaptation of the book and he reprised that role in the Bridget Jones movies. As you most probably had known, the hilarious Bridget Jones’ Diary novel was based on Pride and Prejudice. Poor Colin Firth will most probably forever be known as Mr Darcy due to his Darcy roles in BBC and Bridget and his “wet T-shirt” scene in the BBC drama will stay in his adoring fans’ mind forever!

This novel is so popular that it had spawned the successful Bridget Jones novels and movies, the BBC adaptation and most recently, Bride and Prejudice, the movie that was a joint production between Bollywood and Hollywood. I thought that the movie was hilarious not because that it was meant to be hilarious, but because I could not see Martin Henderson as the Bollywood hero. I also read that they are making a film version of Pride and Prejudice, set in England, staring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth.

The author, Jane Austen, also wrote several famous novels; Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion to name a few. If you are interested to read her books, then I suggest you pick up either Pride and Prejudice or Emma for starters.