Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Finished June 17, 2026
Much to my utter embarrassment pleasant surprise, I actually liked this one? It was an easy read and relatively quick; while it was mostly nonsense it was simultaneously pretty straightforward. We hit the ground running without a lot of setup or exposition and just slammed right in to dialogue and Mrs. Bennet being a nut. In that spirit, let’s just get right to the quotes.
I laughed and thought Elizabeth was pretty alright with this one:
“However, he wrote some verses on her, and very pretty they were.”
“And so ended his affection,” said Elizabeth impatiently. “There has been many a one, I fancy, overcome in the same way. I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!”
“I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,” said Darcy.
“Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”
Aside from the hilarity of needing “maintained”…I’m pretty sure Lizzy is going to end up with a husband just fine at the end of it all:
“But I tell you, Miss Lizzy—if you take it into your head to go on refusing every offer of marriage in this way, you will never get a husband at all—and I am sure I do not know who is to maintain you when your father is dead.”
Isn’t this the fuckin’ truth. Give me mountains anytime:
“What are young men to rocks and mountains?”
I’m not sure exactly why I kept this one but for some reason no matter how many times I read over it trying to remember, I laugh. So I guess that’s why:
“In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
Remember what I said about no setup or exposition? Jane pretty much said, “I am not describing a damn thing, you’re on your own” and actually I really appreciated that. Because while no, none of these places are “sufficiently known” to me, I have no desire to sufficiently know them. This one sentence was plenty:
“It is not the object of this work to give a description of Derbyshire, nor of any of the remarkable places through which their route thither lay; Oxford, Blenheim, Warwick, Kenilworth, Birmingham, etc. are sufficiently known.”
We actually see that technique throughout, even in dialogue. For example, after Mr. Darcy’s quote above where he simply must tell Lizzy how “ardently” he feels about her, we’re simply told that (I’m paraphrasing) “he says some stuff.” Why tell us what Mr. Darcy said when it was probably just embarrassing anyway.
Now we have this gem:
As soon as they were gone, Elizabeth walked out to recover her spirits; or in other words, to dwell without interruption on those subjects that must deaden them more. Mr. Darcy’s behaviour astonished and vexed her.
“Why, if he came only to be silent, grave, and indifferent,” said she, “did he come at all?”
She could settle it in no way that gave her pleasure.
“He could be still amiable, still pleasing, to my uncle and aunt, when he was in town; and why not to me? If he fears me, why come hither? If he no longer cares for me, why silent? Teasing, teasing, man! I will think no more about him.”
Spoiler: She still totally thinks about him.
And this was apparently the last thing I highlighted and it’s still hilarious to me:
In this manner Lady Catherine talked on, till they were at the door of the carriage, when, turning hastily round, she added, “I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased.”
So what did we learn from Pride and Prejudice?
If you want to make a man fall in love with you, be kinda mean to him at first.
If you want to make a woman fall in love with you, be handsome and rich and smart and rich. If that’s not enough, bring in a proficient wingman to talk about how perfect you are. But also, be perfect (and rich). And when all else fails, show off your huge
…estate.
Sixty percent of the time it works every time.
Rating: ★★★★
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