My Daughter's Thoughts: P&P. Such a classic. *Swoon* Ok, so the first hundred pages or so I HATED the book. Loathed reading this chore of a summer assignment. I kept thinking “who is this cad Darcy?? If Liz gets with him I’m going to be so mad.” I couldn’t keep track of the characters, the sentence structure was bizarre, it was boring. And then Darcy - So cranky, brooding, a real wet blanket.
And then Elizabeth went to Rosings. I still remember that mental turning point. It’s like I was seeing a whole new side to Darcy alongside Elizabeth. Soon after she arrived at Rosings I had “Elizabeth+Darcy” etched on my heart. Pretty sure I reread the book immediately after finishing it too. There was something so powerful about the garden scenes that changed everything. My advice is don't judge the book until you've gotten into the Rosings part. You'll be a convert too.
My Thoughts: I find it interesting that Elizabeth fought against Darcy so much, when in a way he is a sort of version of Jane, of whom Elizabeth knows/understands so much. Elizabeth defends Jane's qualities of being shy, modest, and close to the vest with her feelings. Well, isn’t Darcy the same? He’s CLEARLY the King of Introverts; he doesn’t brag about his wealth and honestly just wants to write his business papers; and the only people who see his true personality are his sister, housekeeper, and we assume Bingley.
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It’s layers like these that make the book so interesting to reread & analyze. And Elizabeth Bennet....man! A entire dissertation could be written analyzing her faults and virtues. And you all know I love a flawed character. The character growth of Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, and them as a couple is so interesting to me.
So - do you love P&P? Or have you always struggled to see the allure?