A Pleasant Surprise in a Once Back Burner Novel

Throughout the years in which reading has been a key source of entertainment and comfort, I have managed to cover a rather wide range of genres. From classic Dickens or Hugo to modern Patterson and Rowling, I like to think I have covered a rather significant range of novels over my seventeen years. Despite this budding repertoire I have built, there is one novel that has always been put on the back burner when determining what book to read next. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Often a landmark of high school English classes and literature as a whole, I was very familiar with the novel through both conversation, film, and plays alike. I had watched and read everything save the actual book itself.

After coming off the high of reading Dickens' ever moving Tale of Two Cities for the third time, it was time to read something new. Something that I could cross off the list of books that I've been waiting to read. What better time to take up Austen's classic than now?

Coming into the novel, I was aware of the plot, and was under the impression that I would find Austen's writing entertaining enough, but nothing that would keep me particularly on the edge of my seat. With respect to the significance of the novel, I was prepared to read a straight forward classic that fit all the traditional characteristics of the genre. Pleasantly, I found that in the first fifty pages, not only had Austen managed to keep my attention, but also excite me into further pondering the meaning of her writings.

Pride and Prejudice captures the refined and elegant period of the 18th and 19th Centuries, while showing the high expectations of nobility, particularly in women. She shows the desire for being viewed as proper in households through the gossip between ladies of prominent families and the emphasis on romantic prospects with the relations between the Bennet daughters and gentlemen Darcy and Bingley. While painting this portrait of life and expectation, Austen also captures the irony of showing disdain for having pride, while many characters themselves are quite caught up in the trait, giving words to an age old act.

The novel was surprising in how quickly this idea was portrayed, and amusing with how true it is, even in modern society. We often claim to detest pride or judgement of others, but find ourselves taking part in doing so. It has been a timeless theme in human civilization, and is been captured in the first fifty pages of Austen's book alone. These first ten chapters only begin to scratch the surface of what transforms into one of Austen's greatest and most renown works, and this idea of both widespread pride and prejudice is just beginning to be expanded on in full depth.  Going forth, I am eager to see this theme expand and come full circle, putting words to this social observation that has existed for centuries, and has always been a source of contemplation when pondering the state of society both today and in the past.