Eight hours and 23 minutes later, I finished Pride and Prejudice for the first time. I'm not going to sugar coat this: it was a struggle. I should note that my favorite character in the book was Mr. Bennett! What voice, what humor, what relief! Immediately after reading the book, I turned to the back of my edition to see what other authors had to say about her, specifically, the comments of Mark Twain (my favorite author). Twain states, "Whenever I take up "Pride and Prejudice" or "Sense and Sensibility," I feel like a barkeeper entering the Kingdom of Heaven. . . She makes me detest all her people, without reserve. Is that her intention? It is not believable. Then is it her purpose to make the reader detest her people up to the middle of the book and like them in the rest of the chapters? That could be. That would be high art. It would be worth while, too. Some day I will examine the other end of her books and see." Leave it to Mark Twain to sum up my feelings about this book. He crystalized my thoughts eloquently! I made it through the book, and I'm willing to have a discussion of her book. I will also accept that there are MILLIONS of people who adore these books. I'll be the last person to throw a stone at other people and their tastes. We all have our faults, right? I mean, I adore Disney movies.
Hi Mike - I'm just testing to confirm that I can post a comment. Looks like it is working!
ReplyDeleteYou actually timed how long it took you to read it? That is ... kinda bizarre, tbh! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI too love Mr Bennet.
I would like to know more about what made this a struggle for you. The characters, the language, the situation? All of the above?
I think if we are to talk about why this resonates with some readers, we must also talk about why it does NOT resonate with others!
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSorry. I hit enter too soon.
DeleteI actually didn't time myself. That would be a bit odd. I actually read the book while listening to someone read it on Audible. It helped me keep my focus on the book! So, I just took the runtime of the Audible book as my guide!
I think what made it difficult for me was the verbose prose and trying to get my bearing on who was who, who was related to who, and the actual setting became confusing to me. I actually spent longer on the book because I would constantly refer back to a character list, setting list, maps, and relationships. It just became very confusing!
Now, having said all of that, I can certainly understand why this story resonates. Like all great stories that transcend generations, this book is about hope!
I'm glad you included the quote from Mark Twain. I can definitely see where the two of you are coming from. Particularly with Mr. Darcy, it did feel like there was a switch that was hit which turned him into a likable character. Other characters though, while they may not be people we'd like to spend any time with personally, certainly have their merits. Mr. Bennet is a great example of this. He spends most of the book mildly antagonizing his family, but I get the sense it is all in good fun. Even Mr. Collins, abrasive as he is, makes for good entertainment.
ReplyDeleteI think at the heart of Twain's comment is that none of the characters seem to be characters that you would want to invest any time with. I often tell my young actors this: you MUST create compelling characters that people in the audience would want to spend two hours with! It's at the heart of good storytelling! Now, there is a place with "bad" characters if the reader can be interested in watching the bad character go through the story. That's an investment of time.
DeleteI'm finding myself having a tough time to get through "The Lizzie Bennett Diaries" simply because I find the acting so awful that I just have no attachment or incentive to spend any time with them! The diaries are certainly not meant for this 52 year old man to enjoy.
I agree with you to me what made Mr. Bennett more likeable is that he seemed to be the most "real". I go back to Charlotte Lucas, she is not necessarily likeable but I admire her for her more realistic view on her situation in life. With all the other characters there are these confines of society that they work in, but still somehow manage to unwrap themselves from.
ReplyDeleteLikability is an interesting metric to use when looking at characters. I always chuckle when my students struggle with the difference between liking a character (as a device or component of a story) and liking a character (as a person). And the truth is that (especially at first) I didn't find many of the characters likable either - Mr. Bennet is funny, but Mrs. Bennet is irritating, and Jane is so good as to be kind of boring, Mr. Darcy is an ass, and Mr. Collins is intolerable. Wickham seems pretty cool, though. And therein lies the rub - we're all suckers to Austen's manipulation, just like Elizabeth. We, like Elizabeth, misjudge some of these people! (But just some - Mr. Collins has little defense.)
ReplyDeleteI was certainly fooled by how likable Wickham was at first. I'll even admit that I stayed on Team Wickham a bit longer than I should have. Maybe it should have been a clue that he seemed too good to be true, or maybe we're too focused on our annoyance at Darcy, but Wickham slips through the cracks.
DeleteThis thread was interesting to see how two men of the class reacted to the novel, its relatability, and the characters. As Kate mentioned above, readers tend to comment on characters' likability between plot devices and personal attachments--which is interesting! People often don't want to read a book or watch a movie where absolutely none of the characters are likable--I have put down a few books in my time where I thought not a single character had a redeeming quality and it was difficult for me to care about their progression. This then causes me to think further about how male readers can "relate" to an Austen book such as Pride and Prejudice, where there are male characters, but a lot of them are female. Both Caleb and Mike seemed to have an affinity for Mr. Bennet (understandably) and seemed to be focusing on Darcy's progression in the novel--two of the main male characters of the novel, rather than say, Elizabeth or any of her sisters. Not saying anything of this, this is just an interesting observation of who we pay the most attention to when we read, and who we tend to favor or remember more of.
ReplyDelete