BTS Book Club discussion

So something new, I'm going to try and put the discussion up for the first 1-20 chapters. We can give this a try though if others find that they want to read it faster please drop me a note on your suggestions.
This is one of my Favorite books!

Pride and Prejudice is my favorite romance, hands down!
Elizabeth Bennett is strong - and strong willed - yet levelheaded and kind. The 'narration' and dialogue are superior. I first read P&P as a teen, and have read it a few times since. I adored and admired Elizabeth from that first read!
Fitzwilliam Darcy remains one of my favorite heroes. His transformation is lenghty and occurs slowly and over time - no drastic moves for this sensible fellow! Ha. But I appreciated that. He valued character - and therefore, changing his opinion was something of great consequence. Thankfully, Elizabeth and her 'fine-eyes' managed the job.

I'd be interested to see if any first time readers of this classic join in.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

I love this opening sentence to P&P. My friend and I were talking about that line and how it represented the mind set in those times. I suppose if that were your only job choice then you honestly would hope that too. You would probably pursue it with as much vigor as Mrs. Bennett did.

That is a great opening sentence - and I always appreciate when a book can make me laugh, which that sentence does!

Mr. Bennet is a cheeky character, and his observations when speaking with Mrs. Bennet are often filled with wry whit.

The exchange with Mrs. Bennet when she would like him to visit the new man at Netherfield....Of course, Mr. Bennet resists.

"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least."
"You do not know what I suffer."
"But I hope you will get over it, and live to see many young men of four thousand a year come into the neighborhood."
"It will be of no use to us if twenty such should come, since you will not visit them."
"Depend upon it, my dear, that when there are twenty I will visit them all."
Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character.

Nadja wrote: "That is a great opening sentence - and I always appreciate when a book can make me laugh, which that sentence does!

Mr. Bennet is a cheeky character, and his observations when speaking with Mrs...."

You almost feel sorry for him though that he married a woman that he doesn't respect. But his comments are very cheeky :) at the expense of Mrs. Bennet though she never does "get" it.

Did you know that Emma Thompson wrote the screen play for S&s 96 version and the 05 version to P&P?

I knew about 96 of course but didn't realize P&P was her's to. I would love for her to try Emma and Persuasion!.

I did not know that! Emma Thompson was also absolutely wonderful in a rendition of 'Much Ado About Nothing' - the Shakespeare play turned movie - now I wonder if she had a hand in that as well.

I would love to see her attempt both Emma and Persuasion. The only Jane Austen book I did not care for was Mansfield Park. I couldn't love Fanny the way I did her other heroines.

As for Mr. Bennet, I agree. He was saddled with a woman incapable and wholly disinterested in challenging him on an intellectual level. Yet, I felt sorry for her as well, as Mr. Bennet was sort of an absentee husband. In her day, marrying off daughters with little wealth to recommend them must have been a constant worry. Furthermore, women in her situation had to ensure at least one good match. With no son to take over their husband's lands and wealth, little though it may be - they had the unpleasant thought hanging over their heads that they may be turned out if fate left them widows! I tend to romanticize the era of P&P, yet that sobering reality makes me thankful I live in an age and a country where women do not have such awful laws against them.

I usually tend to romanticize the era too. The reality of the actual facts of the situation girls were left in leaves much to be desired though. i love the fact that even during that time Jane Austen still portrays Elizabeth Bennett as a strong willed character slightly on the edge of the expections of the time.