Pride and Prejudice Post #1

The book I am reading right now is Pride and Prejudice, a classic, written by Jane Austen. I have just finished chapter 15 in the book, but the chapters are really short. Pride and Prejudice is set in England during the late 1700's or early 1800's. The main character, Elizabeth Bennet, is 20 years old and lives at Longbourn. She has 4 sisters (Jane, Mary, Catherine, and Lydia).

The book starts out when the Bennets find out that a wealthy man named Mr. Bingley is moving to Netherfield. The sisters are unmarried so this news is exciting for the family, especially for Mrs. Bennet who wants her daughters to marry into wealth. Soon there is a ball and the Bennet daughters meet Mr. Bingley. Mr. Bingley and Jane (the oldest) fall in love and dance most of the evening. Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley's friend, is unhappy at the ball and refuses to dance with anybody. This causes people, especially Elizabeth, to dislike Mr. Darcy. Later on, Jane is invited to Netherfield. It is raining outside, but Mrs. Bennet makes Jane ride on horseback despite her protests. Jane becomes ill and the Bingleys insist that she should stay with them until she is well. Elizabeth walks over to take care of her. Elizabeth notices that Mr. Darcy is watching her a lot which makes Miss Bingley jealous. When they get home, Mr. Bennet says that his cousin, Mr. Collins will be visiting. Mr. Collins is important to the family because if Mr. Bennet dies, Mr. Collins will inherit the estate. He would be allowed to do anything he wants with the house and property (it's called entailment, like from To Kill a Mockingbird. And Scout was right, it is bad.). Mr. Bennet gives Mr. Collins permission to marry Elizabeth (his second choice next to Jane, but she's "soon to be married"). The next day, Mr. Collins goes with the sisters to Meryton where they see Mr. Denny, a friend of Lydia. Mr. Denny has a friend with him named Mr. Wickham who is a soldier. The sisters are all charmed by him, but when Darcy and Bingley come by, Elizabeth notices some hostility between Wickham and Darcy.

So far I think Pride and Prejudice is good. The characters are interesting and well developed. Jane Austen put time into every character so that we can visualize what he or she might look and act like. I think Austen wrote the book because she loved to write romance novels. Because she has written so many other love stories and because of her intricate characters, I think she just really liked writing and wasn't doing it for money. I believe the themes in this book are social class and, as the book title suggests, pride and prejudice. In my opinion all of these themes work together in the book. Darcy is reluctant to socialize with people from a different social group because of his pride which causes him to have a prejudice against them. Since I'm not very far into the book, these themes aren't well established yet, but as I read on I know they'll become more developed. I think the best character is, of course, Elizabeth. She is very clever, intelligent, and bold, yet she is caring when it comes to her sister Jane.

An important quotation from this book is "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." This is the first sentence of the book. It is important because it sets up the entire plot. It also sums up the entire story. Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy are in search of wives and the Bennet sisters are also in search of wealthy husbands.

One question that I have is: Why does Mr. Collins want to marry one of the Bennet sisters when he is related to them...?