No Pride, All Prejudice
I have a confession to make. I had never actually read Pride and Prejudice before now. Yes, I’d seen the Keira Knightly movie (many, many times), Bride and Prejudice (Bollywood remake), and Fire Island (gay remake). I read Sense & Sensibility more than once for school. But for so long, I never saw the appeal of reading a Jane Austen novel, when you know how it ends and the dialogue is so very…. Regency. So until now, I had never actually read the book.
I decided to undertake the reading of classic romance novels as a balm to balance out the lack of romance I am finding and feeling in my day to day life. I’m sure I could draw a line between the rise of incels, decline of marriage among educated women, and the explosion of the romance genre in publishing, but I think that’s an essay for another time. In any case, I picked Pride & Prejudice to start with specifically because I am so familiar with the plot and the adaptations. I figured if I knew the general story arch, I could muddle through the formal, dated dialogue. I’m very much a ‘white knuckle reader,’ meaning if I start a book, I will push my way to finish it, even if it’s not engaging me. And I figured that P&P was going to draggggg for me.
Boy, was I wrong. SO WRONG. Happily wrong.
Once I adjusted to the tone and style of her writing, I flew through it. Jane Austen knew the value of gossip, of tea, of chatter to propel characters and plot. It doesn’t read as a romance novel so much as a gossip novel, an account of the who, what, wheres that made up women’s lives at that time. I fell hard for this book.
After diving in and fully embracing the spirit of Austen’s writing, I can to the conclusion that her perspective was quite different from what I’d expected. The biggest theme was awkwardness! How AWKWARD it is to fall in love. Telling someone your feelings and figuring out how they feel and the feelings or heartbreak and betrayal - it is maximally CRINGE. Perhaps one of the most universally uncomfortable experiences that we have as humans. It’s all SO AWKWARD. And so British. None but Jane Austen could really do it justice.
On the other side of reading her original words, I feel seen in my own clumsy bumbling through my own feelings and romantic communication. I see that my experiences of crushes, exhilarations, and emotional roller coasters are a constant throughout history. I’ve added a few more Austen novels to my reading list, including Persuasion (I love me a sea captain) and maybe another, adult stab at Sense & Sensibility. And of course, I now must watch the BBC miniseries with Colin Firth to consecrate my ascension into the circle of Austen lovers.
We humans are romantic creatures (well, some of us), and Austen brought that part of us into sharp focus.