The OG Enemies to Lovers

Ah, Pride and Prejudice... You've spent years on my "to be read" list and have finally graduated to "read!" You were also not as difficult to understand or grasp as I expected you to be. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I've seen multiple film adaptations of your timeless story and know your general plot and multifaceted characters pretty well since these viewings. Regardless, you were an enjoyable read and one I will recommend highly to readers fond of subtle romance, aggravatingly humorous mothers and fathers, cringeworthy cousins who think they have the right to go around proposing to women who are way out of their league, suitors ranging from enthusiastic and bumbling to shy and, upon first impressions, positively persnickety, and a heroine's ability to realize where she was too quick to judge. In other words, this story is a fan favorite that has lasted the ages for a reason. I learned so much about the conventions of marriage through the lens of this novel, so much so that I've come to view this "romance novel" less as a story about love and more as a story focused on the game of life and marriage that women had to play without hardly ever "winning," in the basic sense of the word. From Elizabeth's intense prejudice, or inclination to form steadfast opinions about people based on her first impressions, and Mr. Darcy's pride, of both family heritage, society, and culture, this novel's characters are flawed and seem to only realize their faults once they are too clear to miss. There's such a distinct sense of comedy sprinkled throughout this novel as well, from Mr. Collins' ridiculous sermons and doting on Lady Catherine, to this same Lady Catherine's simultaneous feminist and conservative views. And then there's the Bennet family -- a whole flock of eccentric chickens piled into a modest coop in the country, all of a similar nature except the two eldest daughters, Elizabeth and Jane (how they managed to come out different is beyond me and most readers). Mrs. Bennet's lack of motherly instinct and advice reminds me greatly of Mrs. Dashwood in Austen's first novel, Sense and Sensibility, and Mr. Bennet's faults are better disguised behind a quiet nature that prefers to retreat to a study full of books and plants. Jane and Mr. Bingley endure as my two favorite characters and couple, perhaps because I see a good amount of my own personality in Jane's character. I have, however, come to form a more critical opinion of Jane's optimism. An analysis of her character has helped me recognize the negative aspects that come with choosing to see the good in all people when, as Elizabeth reminds her sister time and time again, such is sadly not the way the world works. All in all, this is a book of likeable and detestable characters, social satire, the sticky game of marriage, the gentry class and their foibles, and, veiled behind all of these thick thematic curtains, love. 


Some of my favorite quotes from Pride and Prejudice:

"In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"

"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

"I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine."

"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?"

"Till this moment I never knew myself."

​"The distance is nothing when one has a motive."

---