I have decided I am either on crack or not really a woman. I picked Pride and Prejudice to read this month ‘cuz everyone’s always told me what a great book it is; most of the other girls at work have seen me carry around my copy and always gush about how much they love the book and how much I am going to love the book.
I guess I just don’t have the attention span nor the sophistication to appreciate this book. It’s kinda there with Three Musketeers right now in that it’s a classic novel that I can put on my shelf and say I’ve read…but will probably never pick up again. Of course, in this case, should I return to the U.S. as an English teacher, there’s a good chance I’ll hafta read it again and what not.
On the bright side, the edition I have has all the old spellings like “shewn” for “shown” and “staid” for “stayed”.
So yeah. I guess I suck ‘cuz I don’t really care for the book.
See, my theory is that most of the chicas who love the book watched the BBC adaptation, too. And *that* is what they’re really talking about. I read a book called _Austenland_ that refers to this - the book’s good, all wry and sarcastic and stuff, but it’s Colin Firth as Darcy and Jennifer Ehle’s rendering of Lizzy that really grabs the imagination/attention. :p
First…Sigh…Colin Firth…Oh how I love thee!
Now, I first read P&P when I was in Grade 7, so it was merely because it was a classic. At that time, I loved it. Loved it over the next two years that I read it (read it once a year), then only liked it the three years after that. I agree that it’s a good book, but it simply isn’t the great book everyone makes it out to be. It is quite slow at times, and the language really isn’t all that new or engaging, but it is a classic afterall, and I am glad that you finally picked it up and saw what all the fuss was about.
I meant to read it before watching the movie but it didn’t turn out that way. When I did read the book, I found that it was better for me to have seen the movie first. I usually don’t like to have the movie in my head when I read a book but I think I would have had the same problem you are having. I did find that it dragged a bit at parts. Analyzing the way the book was adapted for the movie helped to keep it interesting for me. I am glad to have read the classic and I may try to tackle other Austen classics but as far as Pride and Prejudice goes, I think I like the movie much better….in fact, I have the urge to watch it now…but I promised myself I’d watch the first Lord of The Rings movie again now that I’ve read the book (yet another movie I saw before reading the book).
LOL…I did that with War and Peace…sigh…I’ll finish that book eventually…but definitely never going to do that again (movie before book) if I can help it.