Pride and Prejudice (Puffin Classics) [Abridged] [Mass Market Paperback]

Jane Austen (Author), Linda Jennings (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0140373373 | ISBN-13: 978-0140373370 | Publication Date: October 1, 1995 | Edition: Abridged

Mr and Mrs Bennet live with their five daughters. Jane, the eldest daughter, falls in love with Charles Bingley, a rich batchelor who takes a house nearby with his two sisters and friend, Fitzwilliam Darcy. Darcy is attracted to the second daugher, Elizabeth, but a bad account of him is given to Elizabeth. He and Bingley's effect the separation of Bingley and Jane. William Collins, cousin to the sisters and as only male, heir to the Bennet estate, proposes to Elizabeth but is rejected. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth but she refuses.When Elizabeth travels north she is invited with friends to Darcy's place in Berbyshire, and thinking Darcy is absent she goes. However, he is there and she is surprised by his much-improved manners. She hears news that her sister Lydia has eloped with Wickham, an unprincipled adventurer. With Darcy's help the fugitives are found. The attachment between Bingley and Jane is renewed and leads to an engagement. In spite of the insolent intervention of Lady Catherine, Darcy and Elizabeth become engaged.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Next to the exhortation at the beginning of Moby-Dick, "Call me Ishmael," the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice must be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British mating rituals with a sure hand and an unblinking eye. As usual, Austen trains her sights on a country village and a few families--in this case, the Bennets, the Philips, and the Lucases. Into their midst comes Mr. Bingley, a single man of good fortune, and his friend, Mr. Darcy, who is even richer. Mrs. Bennet, who married above her station, sees their arrival as an opportunity to marry off at least one of her five daughters. Bingley is complaisant and easily charmed by the eldest Bennet girl, Jane; Darcy, however, is harder to please. Put off by Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity and the untoward behavior of the three younger daughters, he is unable to see the true worth of the older girls, Jane and Elizabeth. His excessive pride offends Lizzy, who is more than willing to believe the worst that other people have to say of him; when George Wickham, a soldier stationed in the village, does indeed have a discreditable tale to tell, his words fall on fertile ground.

Having set up the central misunderstanding of the novel, Austen then brings in her cast of fascinating secondary characters: Mr. Collins, the sycophantic clergyman who aspires to Lizzy's hand but settles for her best friend, Charlotte, instead; Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy's insufferably snobbish aunt; and the Gardiners, Jane and Elizabeth's low-born but noble-hearted aunt and uncle. Some of Austen's best comedy comes from mixing and matching these representatives of different classes and economic strata, demonstrating the hypocrisy at the heart of so many social interactions. And though the novel is rife with romantic misunderstandings, rejected proposals, disastrous elopements, and a requisite happy ending for those who deserve one, Austen never gets so carried away with the romance that she loses sight of the hard economic realities of 19th-century matrimonial maneuvering. Good marriages for penniless girls such as the Bennets are hard to come by, and even Lizzy, who comes to sincerely value Mr. Darcy, remarks when asked when she first began to love him: "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley." She may be joking, but there's more than a little truth to her sentiment, as well. Jane Austen considered Elizabeth Bennet "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print". Readers of Pride and Prejudice would be hard-pressed to disagree. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Austen is the hot property of the entertainment world with new feature film versions of Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility on the silver screen and Pride and Prejudice hitting the TV airwaves on PBS. Such high visibility will inevitably draw renewed interest in the original source materials. These new Modern Library editions offer quality hardcovers at affordable prices.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Puffin; Abridged edition (October 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140373373
• ISBN-13: 978-0140373370
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #769,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( A ) > Austen, Jane

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read For Everyone, February 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Pride and Prejudice (Puffin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Five stars hardly seems to be enough to describe this novel with. The only downfall is that this version is abridged. It's hard not to fall in love with the characters in this book. Mrs. Bennett is a "silly" woman and her husband is full of humor about her antics. Jane and Elizabeth are two of the most well-developed characters that I have ever had the pleasure of reading about. And, as for Mr. Darcy, how can you not fall in love with him by the end of the book? I know I did. He is cruel-hearted at the beginning but sort of learns his leason after an unexpected refusal. As for Jane, she and her love are more or less torn apart because of a misunderstanding. Live with the two eldest Bennett sisters and experience high and low society with them. Encounter seemingly unsolvable problems and love and hate. This is a story that you will truly never forget.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engage yourself in afternoon tea with Jane Austin, July 13, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Pride and Prejudice (Puffin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Do you not believe that "real men wear black"? Do you prefer afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches over Budweiser and pretzels? Do you simply adore Hugh Grant? Even so, skip the movie, and read the book that any lady would hold dear. If you believe that the difference between a girl in a go-go dress and a lady in a flower print dress is as wide as the Grand Canyon, then the escapades of the Bennett sisters will enthrall you. Pride and Prejudice is a book that is light in the topics that move today's news, but is crucial for understanding the interactions of everyday life with those that you love. Jane Austin illustrates a clear understanding of how we ladies get ourselves in the predicaments that we inevitably do, and to our comfort, she shows that while the news changes everyday, the dynamics of human relationships will always be the same.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST BOOK EVER WRITEN!!!!!!!!!!!, September 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Pride and Prejudice (Puffin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is one of the best books in the world. Jane Austen is truly the worlds greatest author. You will find yourself falling in love with all of the people in this book, and you yearn for things to happen that in the end.... well I'll just say the end is one of the elements that makes this book wanderful!!!
This truly is the best book that was ever made. It is a MUST READ for everyone and anyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!