Pride and Prejudice
Book Author: Jane Austen
Reviewed By: Lahari Grade 8

Author Introduction: Hi! I’m Lahari. I’m in grade 8B. I love reading, acting, swimming, watching Japanese anime, singing, and spending time with friends.

Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen, is a beautifully woven love story with just the right amount of subtle, witty, ironic humor in it. There are various intriguing characters in the story that help in developing the right setting for the story to take place. For instance, Mrs. Bennet, an eccentric lady whose only goal

in life is to see her 5 daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Kitty, and Mary married off to rich men. But, the plot mainly revolves around Elizabeth or Lizzie Bennet, an independent, witty, sensible, proud girl and her misjudgments about Mr. Darcy, a rich, seemingly arrogant man,

The story begins with Mrs. Bennet speaking to her husband about how he simply must introduce Jane, their eldest daughter, to a rich, eligible bachelor by the name of Charles Bingley. After he introduces them at a ball, they meet quite a few times and Mr. Bingley appears to have fallen in love with Jane and Jane too, secretly begins to adore Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth is introduced to Mr. Bingley’s friend, Mr. Darcy and takes an instant dislike to him for he comes across as an obnoxious, haughty man. But, over the next few social functions, Mr. Darcy begins to take a liking to Lizzie’s wit and intelligence.Just when they expect that Mr. Bingley will propose to Jane, he leaves Hertfordshire. Jane, depressed, decides to go to the city to visit her friends and hopefully, Mr. Bingley too. Meanwhile Elizabeth continues to find more and more reasons for detesting Mr. Darcy and when he proposes to her, she denies his proposal and tells him those reasons. Mr. Darcy leaves, brokenhearted, but arrives a while later and drops off a letter to Elizabeth in which he describes the truth. Elizabeth reads it, but is too proud to accept her mistake. The rest of the story revolves around their relationship and the various problems their love faces due to their misconceptions and pride.
The most infuriating part of the book is that entire time you’re screaming at them, saying, you’re wrong! Just listen to the other character for a minute! but of course the characters can’t hear you and they go on making blunder upon blunder. I loved the way Jane Austen wrote the book, though. The entire time it seems like she is laughing at how silly human nature is and is making us laugh along with her. Elizabeth’s witty, stubborn character along with Mr. Darcy’s indifferent, arrogant character was the perfect combination and it looked as though they were made for each other. Mrs. Bennet’s eccentric, flustered, and shameless mother’s character was extremely amusing and provided humor in the right places. I especially liked Mr. Bennet’s personality. He loved Elizabeth the most out of all of his daughters and as he said so himself in the book, he could not have parted with her for anyone less worthy of her.

I think Pride and Prejudice is an apt name for this book because it gives us an insight into the follies of being prejudiced and making a decision about the character of a person solely based on their outward appearance. It is like being separated from someone by a wall and not bothering to break through it to see what was really inside.If both, Lizzie and Mr. Darcy had cut down on their ego a bit, figured out their own feelings, and apologized for their mistakes, they would have been much happier much earlier in the book. But I suppose, it would be no fun to read a book with no problems. Pride and Prejudice is the most meaningful book I have ever read and I will cherish it throughout my life. I hope that all of the students from grade 6 and above will pick up this book and will enjoy it as much as I did.