Binding: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.7
EAN: 9781561004843
Edition: Unabridged
Format: Unabridged
ISBN: 1561004847
Label: Bookcassette
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: Bookcassette
Number Of Items: 4
Publication Date: 1993-04-01
Publisher: Bookcassette
Release Date: 1993-04-01
Studio: Bookcassette

A delightful novel about "how girls catch husbands." Listen in to find out: what will happen to sister Lydia? will the arrogant Lady Catherine de Burgh's intrigues be foiled? will sister Jane marry Mr. Bingley? and especially, will Elizabeth, cured of her prejudice, and Mr. Darcy, cured of his pride, fall into each other's arms?

Listeners will also savor the wit, the sly irony and satire and comedy that Miss Austen crowds into almost every quiet, well-bred line of this novel. There is great sanity, common sense and worldly wisdom to be found in her exploration of human nature.

Sir Walter Scott said, Jane Austen had "that exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting." This quality provides today's listeners of Pride and Prejudice with a fascinating trip into the lives of the privileged in England during the eighteenth century.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Next to the exhortation at the beginning of Moby-Dick, "Call me Ishmael," the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice must be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British mating rituals with a sure hand and an unblinking eye. As usual, Austen trains her sights on a country village and a few families--in this case, the Bennets, the Philips, and the Lucases. Into their midst comes Mr. Bingley, a single man of good fortune, and his friend, Mr. Darcy, who is even richer. Mrs. Bennet, who married above her station, sees their arrival as an opportunity to marry off at least one of her five daughters. Bingley is complaisant and easily charmed by the eldest Bennet girl, Jane; Darcy, however, is harder to please. Put off by Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity and the untoward behavior of the three younger daughters, he is unable to see the true worth of the older girls, Jane and Elizabeth. His excessive pride offends Lizzy, who is more than willing to believe the worst that other people have to say of him; when George Wickham, a soldier stationed in the village, does indeed have a discreditable tale to tell, his words fall on fertile ground.

Having set up the central misunderstanding of the novel, Austen then brings in her cast of fascinating secondary characters: Mr. Collins, the sycophantic clergyman who aspires to Lizzy's hand but settles for her best friend, Charlotte, instead; Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy's insufferably snobbish aunt; and the Gardiners, Jane and Elizabeth's low-born but noble-hearted aunt and uncle. Some of Austen's best comedy comes from mixing and matching these representatives of different classes and economic strata, demonstrating the hypocrisy at the heart of so many social interactions. And though the novel is rife with romantic misunderstandings, rejected proposals, disastrous elopements, and a requisite happy ending for those who deserve one, Austen never gets so carried away with the romance that she loses sight of the hard economic realities of 19th-century matrimonial maneuvering. Good marriages for penniless girls such as the Bennets are hard to come by, and even Lizzy, who comes to sincerely value Mr. Darcy, remarks when asked when she first began to love him: "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley." She may be joking, but there's more than a little truth to her sentiment, as well. Jane Austen considered Elizabeth Bennet "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print". Readers of Pride and Prejudice would be hard-pressed to disagree. --Alix Wilber

Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Classic
Comment: This book is a timeless and beloved classic. It's a beautiful story of class in Jane Austen's time that appeals to us today because it is so well-wrtitten. It's scrupulously clean morally, and I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates the time when love stories were wholesome and pure and touching. All the characters have an appeal that's makes you appreciate the way they fit into the story.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth paying for on the Kindle
Comment: Kindle owners hopefully are aware of the wealth of free editions of the classics which are available through Feedbooks and other sources.

I obtained a copy of P&P from feedbooks originally and while it was easy to get and the price was right, the overall quality of the text is not great. I've found several typos, presumably the result of OCR errors and it's somewhat distracting.

Since P&P is one of my wife's favorite books, I was delighted to see
Penguin had released an electronic edition for $0.50 complete with the usual footnotes, essays and maps that one's used to
finding in textbook editions of the classics.

The table of contents is pretty minimal. The headings include the editor's material, and the three volume headings.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: What a Year for the Bennets
Comment: As much as this book revolves around three of the four daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, all of those characters revolve around Mr. Darcy - whose personality and character matures and unfolds before you.

Neither poor nor rich, the Bennets cannot establish great wealth and comforts for their children - and Mrs. Bennet's hard opinionated character further deprives the lovely lasses of possibilities for advancement. But, through the character weakness(es) will come happiness in all levels - where some smile and others are more joyous and laugh. And, thee events happen quickly, all within one year's time.

Darcy, who adores his 10-years-younger sister Georgiana, is the proper gentleman who has never raised his voice during his 28 years. Elizabeth, her father's favorite and mother's least, befriends Mr. Darcy and soon aggravates his senses and challenges him to make it to 29 without harsh verbal exchange or raised voice.

After some embarrassingly wrong misconceptions of his character, and equally wrong characterizations about a person whose life has plagued Darcy's, Elizabeth watches the young man blossom as he singlehandedly controls her family's pitfalls, confronts those who attempt to deliver her family to near disasters and financially saves the family from other possible misfortunes. In such actions, Darcy has to befriend an enemy, deliver embezzled money, negotiate with creditors of his enemy, and more. And, all for love - and who ever said love would be easy?

Pride is swallowed not only by Darcy, but by so many others in this novel. "Pride. . . is a very common failing. . . Human nature is quite proud of some quality or other, real or imaginary." We learn, "Vanity and pride are different things." "Pride rises from a good opinion of ourselves; vanity from what we would have others think of us."

We are wrongly told ". . . almost all his [Darcy's] actions may be traced to pride, and pride has often been his best friend." In the end, we learn Darcy ". . . has no improper pride."

Interestingly, prejudice is not a word defined, used or explained like its title counterpart. But, prejudice is a concept belying each page, each acquaintance, each personal affront, and somehow is easily overcome by youthful passion. Prejudice helplessly loses amidst the betrothing of the three daughters full of young passion.

In the end, a Cinderella-like conclusion befits the young hearts' defiance to prejudice through passion. And, in the persuasive methods of young Elizabeth, the originally perceived overbearing pride of Darcy evolves into what she describes to be proper pride.

If there is one thing this reader enjoys in this Austen book it is the dialogue. Whether it be the hindered ire of Darcy in civilly responding to Elizabeth's overzealous impertinence, or Elizabeth's steadfast refusal to succumb to Lady Catherine's requests that she never wed her nobleman nephew, the calm and polite retorts are deliciously phrased and eloquently presented. Few plays can match such work.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: as always, better than the movie
Comment: I enjoyed this book thoroughly. It takes a little bit of time to get used to the language used, but once you get into it, it is hard to put down. A true romance. Why doesn't it happen like that anymore? :)

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Pride and Prejudice
Comment: It seriously does not get any better than this! This book unfolds slowly allowing you to fall in love with the characters and get a feel that world and time. An amazing love story, it leaves you wanting more!

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