I liked it. The novel is a bit too contrived for modern tastes, I think: too many plot lines. However, as a study of how to get ahead I thought it very useful. And as a romance: it has the proper sweet ending.
What I found most interesting were the male characters. Her contemporaries may have scorned some errors in her dealing with legal issues essential to the plot, but I think she did very well in describing the difficulties in trying to start a career and the balance between sucking up to your clients and managers and having your own professional honor. We may honor talent a bit more than network these days, but it's surely a matter of degree - the same principles still apply.
As such: I think this book is probably especially useful to women trying to make it in the world. It is, after all, a woman's perspective on what was at that time a man's world. The book may have been written 3 centuries ago (published 1813, 1814), but the professional struggles haven't changed all that much.
The women, in contrast, were paper-thin. We have the ideal woman (Caroline, probably a model for Jane in Pride and Prejudice) - but we never get a feel for who she really is. Like Jane she is just a bit too good to be true. Rosamond is a bit more defined, but she too is hardly the subject of the story. Jane Austen's Lizzy may be modeled after her, but is a more rounded out character.
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A little girl is sad that kindergarten is coming to an end. She wishes it were the first day again, when everything was exciting and new and there was such a fun year ahead. But then she realizes that graduating is exciting, too, and maybe first grade won’t be so bad, after all! | Learn more
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FilmTVgeek
My problem is not with the novel, my problem ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 24, 2017
