Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – Book 62

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Wow is this book boring.  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was PAINFUL to read.

PAINFUL!!!!!

The book is filled with rich people being super proper.  Oh my goodness it was bad.

Although a little more than halfway through the book, I did start to enjoy it.  Mainly because they stopped being so stuffy and started being a little more real.

There were a bunch of funny, underhanded proper comments, similar to something like “Why, doesn’t she look pretty today?” but really meaning that she’s super ugly and happens to have made herself look good for this moment.

The overall story line: Daughters find people to become their husbands.

Done.

I just couldn’t handle it.

But it’s a classic and I already know some of you are going to agree with me while others are like shouting at the screen in frustration at my review.

So tell me your thoughts on Pride and Prejudice!

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72 thoughts on “Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – Book 62”

  1. I trust your opinion and I’m pushing down Pride and Prejudice to be LAST on my classics ‘to read” list! Good thing I got it free on Kindle 🙂

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  2. I struggled with Pride and Prejudice, so I share your pain. However, should you fancy trying again, I can recommend ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ published by Quirk Classics. It’s far more entertaining! (They also do Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, but it’s not quite as good).

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  3. I hated this book the first time I read it. I was really impatient with the characters and wished for it all to be over with. I didn’t really appreciate it until I had to teach it which I suppose involves reading in a different way. it really is quite clever and Austen is quite sly and underhand in her descriptions of the characters.

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    • She is sly, and I loved the kind of slick comments, and I also know it’s a classic for a reason. Personally, I thought the book took too long to get to the point, too much side gossip, and I’m just not a fan of romance in general. But that’s an interesting point with enjoying it more being able to analyze and teach it!

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  4. At the cost of losing my status of a reader, I would say this book is much easier to read if you have watched the 5 hour, BBC, with Colin Firth, movie. It just makes the whole thing easier to understand. The other part of it is you have to understand that Jane Austen is being pretty funny through most of it. But to each her own. I love it and continue to love it. I did not like Sense and Sensability that much… so… I understand.

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  5. I really like this book. It always makes me laugh out loud. I love the way Austen makes fun of the established order of things. But to each his own–you’re allowed to dislike it without people getting on your case about it. Haha!

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  6. Have to add to the others who are talking of the writing. The characters are supposed to be stuffy, Austen is showing how silly it all is – so in that way, that you found them stuffy and boring is appropriate 🙂 It does end in the way of your summary but that is a lot to do with the time it was written, finding husbands was expected. It’s probably obvious I’m a fan :p

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    • I agree with your comments fully (except I didn’t enjoy the book).

      But to me, the romance part was not my thing. I do not enjoy romance at all, whether its movies or books. Obviously, it was supposed to end up the way it did because it’s a romance novel.

      And I can do stuffy but there was just too much stuffy, proper. Once they opened up and said those fake proper comments, I was hooked for 10 minutes or so until the next nasty type of comment emerged.

      I tried it, and I read the entire book without stopping, and I also can see what other people see in the book. But it just wasn’t for me. 🙂

      Although I’m super glad we have all of this great discussion about the book! If I loved it, this convo would be boring and stuffy! (Just kidding)

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      • You being so open about your thoughts enabled the discussion which is brilliant. I think where I labelled it a classic (as a child) I don’t notice the romance so much, as in it’s there but I don’t consider it stereotypical. But it is so, and for that I can see it being off-putting. That you’ve taken everything into account makes your opinion all the more interesting and a reason for others to pause for thought 🙂

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  7. Rebecca, I’m with worldsbeforethedoor — watching a film adaptation first makes all the difference. It helps you to understand not just the basic plot, but also the language and the humor. The BBC Colin Firth version is usually preferred but I’d say if time is short the 2005 version with Keira Knightly will also do the trick. I took my daughter to see it when she was 12 and it turned her into an Austen fan.

    When I first read P&P, I thought it was OK but wasn’t over the moon about it. Many years later I decided to read all of Austen’s novels and finished with a new appreciation for P&P and for all things Austen. Now I re-read one novel each year (S&S in 2013). So yeah, I’m a fan.

    But as Heather said — to each his own! You are certainly entitled to your opinion!!

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    • I feel like I stuck with it, didn’t stop reading, and can see where the appeal is. So I think in that way, it was a success for me.

      I also might have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t all about finding husbands. I know that’s how it goes with the time the novel was written, but it’s a romance. And I just really don’t enjoy romance novels. I mean, I can’t even stand chick-lit type of books, either, and I’d probably rather clean the toilet than sit through an episode of Sex & the City.

      I love to dress up and do certain girlie things, but romance novels/movies, girlie novels/movies, those just are not my thing for some reason.

      And I think there’s much more valid discussion going on with me disliking the book as opposed to liking it.

      It’s kind of fun, everyone’s trying to kind of get me to like it 🙂

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  8. I struggled with the book until I saw the BBC version of the movie. It gets SO much better and easier to read after that. But at least you tried it! 🙂 Are you going to try another Austen? P&P definitely isn’t my favorite of hers.

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  9. I won’t get on your case 😉 Thankfully we all like different things or the world would be boring indeed! BUT I will say that P&P is my all time love and I find it to be finely crafted and beautiful 😀

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    • Almost no one has agreed with me today! Where are my P&P dislikers? 🙂

      I can see how the book is a valuable classic. I was sucked into the story every time they had a bratty comment disguised as being proper. But that’s where my love affair with the novel ended. Oh well! I did finish it, so do I get some credit for that?

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  10. I’m definitely yelling at the screen in frustration (internally of course). I LOVE Pride and Prejudice even though it’s not my favorite Austen novel. And definitely DO NOT read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!!!! If you’re going to read an Austen Mashup Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is miles better than PPZ.

    I’m planning on rereading P&P this month in honor of the 200th Anniversary of it’s publication and you can read more of my thoughts then, but for me Austen’s collected works are better viewed as a whole. Her acerbic wit and social commentary are timeless and I think provide a lot of insight into the society, even if yes they are a bit dull at first. I found reading another Austen novel, or reading the second one helped drastically because the language and the pace are so different from what we, generally, read today.

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    • I will 100% read other Austen. And I KNEW I’d get some “screaming at the screen” with this review. 🙂

      But in my defense of the novel, I did enjoy the wit when it was there, I did finish the novel, I also am willing to keep trying other Austen, and I can see the value in the novel.

      I’m just not a romance novel enjoyer!

      But that’s amazing to reread it for its 200th. I was asked by another blogger if thats why I read it now, but that was just a coincidence!

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      • Yeah – I’m too much of a hopeless romantic and thus I read all the (incredibly trashy) fan-fiction that is published. I’d say check out Mansfield Park because it’s probably my favorite but it’s such a tome! I guess Northanger Abbey, from what I can remember, is probably the least romantic.

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        • Oh no! You can’t “hate” or even validly state your opinion if you don’t finish!!!! If I blog about it, I’ve read the entire thing. If I stop in the middle, I’m not going to waste my blog space talking about it. It’s kind of like people who have read half of the 1st Harry Potter then claim they don’t like it and know all about it because they saw the movies. Oy!

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  11. I like the latest remake of the film shown in cinema because of the lead actress. Love the cinematography. Then I read the book and like the male lead even more. Like it or not, I am glad I managed to finish the book which is a great achievement for me. I never knew I can read something like that 🙂

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    • I also am proud of myself for finishing the book and seeing value in it for sure.

      It also sounds like I need to watch the movie.

      I just added the BBC one to my queue on Netflix, since that has been a highly recommended one!

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  12. haha! Love this! I think I liked it a LITTLE more than you did, but I really was bored with all the “proper” (i.e., boring) romances. Mostly, I just hate how they all claim to be terribly in love when they’ve only met a handful of times and really haven’t spoken much at all. As a historical study, that’s interesting, but it doesn’t make for a very fun read!

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    • You said how it really bugged you how they are so terribly in love when they don’t even know each other. That was really annoying, but it totally reminded me of all the reality shows like that. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching The Bachelor/Bachelorette, but they are all so in love and they don’t even know the person! And honestly, how easy is it to fall in love when you’re swept away to a few countries doing amazing things? That’s not real life. But that’s what the falling in love super fast thing makes me think of!

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  13. Ohhh what a review! Some of the Austen’s fans have to be died after reading this!! 😀
    I read the book a few months ago because I participated in a classics challenge, and I have to say I liked it. I didn’t love it, but it was not so bad. I think it’s because I was expecting a very boring book, so I found it entertaining. But I’m sure it’s the kind of classic that, if you think you will love it, you won’t like it at all, as I think it happened to you.
    At leas, you will find your next reading more interesting after a boring book 😉

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    • Haha! I knew people would be “angry” with my review, but at least we’re doing a lot of talking about the novel! 🙂

      And honestly, other Jane Austen can’t be so bad since I will expect the worst and probably end up enjoying some of them!

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  14. I really liked Pride and Prejudice, but it’s not for everybody. If it makes you feel any better, Mark Twain hated Jane Austen. So you’re in good company. (That’s true, you can find Twain quotes bashing her. It’s pretty funny, actually.)

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    • Thanks for the pep talk! I’m getting bashed in most of the comments here. Just kidding, I know they’re all in good fun, and probably written out of shock. 🙂

      And I’m totally going to look up those Twain quotes! Thanks for the tip!

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  15. Here’s my reaction to P&P in 2011 if you’re curious. I went from loathing it to loving it, in two reads. I highly recommended an annotated edition (linked at the post I’ve already mentioned.) Also, a biography of Jane Austen. (I read the one by Claire Tomalin.) There is much under the surface in Austen. Look at P&P from Charlotte Lucas’s POV, and you’ll begin to see what Austen is doing. Cheers! 🙂

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  17. Personally I find Jane Austen to be one of the most overrated authors. I’ve watched all the adaptations and I understood the plot and the “humor” but every Austen book I have ever picked up is essentially the same novel with different names and subtle changes. They are also extremely boring. I’m just happy someone else finally admitted that this book is BORING! Thank you for your honesty!

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    • You’re welcome! And thank you for that comment because most people have totally been bashing (nicely) my opinion and I know it’s supposed to be humorous and dull, but I don’t enjoy reading that! And I’m pretty blunt about things in general, so hopefully me being honest, even if people disagree, makes everyone see that I’m not going to sugar coat it if I don’t enjoy it. 🙂

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  18. You know, I am not sure I would have enjoyed P&P much if I hadn’t listened to the audio with a good narrator. She really brought out the dry wit and sarcasm because she had an understanding of the text that I probably would not have had on a first read. Even that being said, I don’t LOVE P&P or Austen in general. I found P&P enjoyable, and I actually really like Persuasion, but S&S is ‘meh’ for me and I’m not rushing out to read the rest of her work.

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  19. Pingback: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – Book 62 – mrschristine.com

  20. I’m very sorry to hear that you hated Pride and Prejudice. It has been my favorite book for a while, there is something quite appealing about the book that makes it as popular today as it was 200 years ago. Surely it’s about different society in a different era (more than 200 years ago), but it still holds a lot of qualities of today’s society and way of thinking. I personally identify with the book find it witty. It’s filled with irony and rhythm.

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  21. It is a testament to my adoration of you that I am even reading this post because I KNEW you didn’t like it! Luckily for you, I will give you a free pass on not enjoying one of the best classics out there. Maybe you’ll like Pride & Prejudice & Zombies?

    Sigh. I’m sorry you didn’t like it. It makes me so sad!

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  22. Hehe funny. I share the same sentiment. I think it is one of the reasons why I read less than five books in that specific month. It took me a long time to finish this novel. I know it is classic and a lot of people love and even quote it, but it was frustrating to me! There’s the romance, but I feel like everything is in slow-motion. The title is appropriate though.

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  23. A book should stand on its own. If you have to see a movie to make a book likable, in my opinion that book can’t stand on its own. No disrespect to the fans out there.
    I don’t like Jane Austen in general, but P&P was its own special breed of terrible for me. So, I’ve got your back. Down with stuffy English classics!

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  24. Pingback: January Mini-Reviews « Love at First Book

  25. Lol. I just reviewed this book this week too, one if my bucket list/I gotta see what the fuss is about books. I totally agree that this book was painful and why it took me two years of starting it and trying to finish it. I didn’t really start to enjoy it until about 2/3rds into it. The social status and preying on suitable men was not my thing either. I do love romance though (not in the old harlequin romance sense of romance) so Ms. Austen recovered in the end for me. It just took me a looong time to get there and truth he told, I nearly didn’t complete it.

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  26. Forgot to say I loved Persuasion probably because I had a similar situation to the protagonist Anne and a similar outcome. I would laugh out loud in parts of that one and inevitably it would get my husband in “trouble” as, of course, he represents all men. I haven’t entirely given up on Austen books but just know I have to endure the pain, to get the gain. 🙂

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  27. The first 150 pages were hard to get through. I wasn’t enjoy it at all. I gave up a couple of times and it wasn’t until the third one that I could get through the whole book. When I finished it, the more I thought about it, the more I started to like it overall.
    Now that I’m rereading it years later, I’m enjoying it a whole lot more.

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    • That’s always good! While this book wasn’t for me at all, I can see the literary merit. And I do like coming back to a book I read, maybe in high school, and enjoying it so much more! I did that with The Handmaid’s Tale, and it turned into my favorite book ever (and the only book I’ve read 3x).

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