A review by foxo_cube
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'm not 100% sure what I expected going into this, but I wasn't expecting such a funny book.

The writing style is old-fashioned, obviously, but it's like having your friend tell you what's been going on and I love it.

Maybe it's because I heard before reading it that Mr Darcy's autistic-coded, but I felt so bad for him, everyone thinking he was rude for so long when he just struggles with talking to people! His sister, too.

Anyway, the characters in this are great. Mr and Mrs Bennet are hilarious - the former for his sarcasm and detached, observational kind of wit; the latter for her well-meaning but absolutely awful insistence on getting her daughters married off to good (read: rich) men at <i>any</i> cost. This is rather unfortunate for the daughters in question - Mr Darcy, in particular, cites the parents as very off-putting to any men with any interest in them.

Jane and Elizabeth are very sweet women who I feel I'd like to be friends with. Mr Bingley's a good egg, although his sisters are total bitches. How he ended up so pleasant compared to the others is a mystery. Mary only features occasionally, but her tendency to show up and say something that she thinks sounds awfully clever was really funny - and I can't pretend I didn't kind of relate to that, as much as I hate to admit it. The younger sisters are silly little things, with their infatuation with officers
, but it was good that Kitty grew up a bit by the end, even if Lydia painted herself into a corner, sadly


Mr Collins!! Oh, he is awful. Proof that guys were doing the whole "you're not that hot anyway lmao" thing 200 years ago.
His disastrous proposal to Elizabeth, and his denial of her rejection, made me cringe horribly. Poor Charlotte, who ended up stuck with him. I mean, she seemed okay with it, never expecting to marry anyone for love anyway, but she has to deal with him!
His tendency to completely bow and scrape to anyone he sees as having higher rank; look down upon anyone he sees as lower; and humblebrag like nothing else regardless made him very fun to hate.

A lot of the story here is people misunderstanding each other. I mean, it's basically what the title says - the mistakes people make because of their pride and/or prejudice. That doesn't sound awfully compelling when I put it like that, but I was so desperate for it all to get ironed out and sometimes it seemed like there was no way that could happen, but things mostly ended happily
aside from poor Lydia in her doomed marriage to Mr Wickham. I knew he was sus, but god, he was <i>really</i> sus
. This was a lot of fun to read and I'm so glad I got round to reading it.

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