Monday, July 15, 2013

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice IV

"This is the most poorly written book I have ever read. I don't understand why anybody would ever consider it a classic..."


"Pretty much a shot for shot rip off of the West Side Story, just based in the early 1800s."


"I read it at school and, being an introvert, I hated it for its superficiality and poor values."


"I love the film adaptations (especially the 1995 BBC miniseries with Colin Firth), but you can tell those screenwriters really took some liberties with the content. It's telling, I think, when a film adaptation manages to give characters more depth than they had in the book."


"I do not think Austen was interested very much in plots, tbh, or even psychology."


"I must disagree with you about her writing being technically good. As a former technical editor, I can assure you it is not; Austen made her share of grammatical errors, so I was cringing as I was yawning my way through her stories.

I earned an English degree and read plenty of classics (greatly enjoy the Bronte sisters' works), but Austen only appealed to me when I needed something to help me fall asleep. Seriously; I had to force myself to finish P&P, the most unromantic 'romance novel' in existence.
...
For all of fans' swooning over Mr. Darcy, I was expecting there to be...well, MORE TO HIM. He is a stiff, one-dimensional character. I think Austen was having so much fun fancying-up her sentences that she didn't take the time to properly flesh out Darcy--or any of the characters for that matter. P&P had potential to be better if only it were more sharply character focused (good plot naturally flows from strong, well-developed characters)."


"this book is far too long, and contains too much flimsy-whimsy, twee, cotton-wool padding."


"Her habit of making the reader painfully aware of how irritating a character is for prattling on incessantly about inane topics by having them prattle on incessantly about inane topics for pages seems like a waste of ink. I will quote myself here: 'Really? Like we couldn’t tell after the first paragraph? Does Lydia or Mrs. Bennet really have to keep going on for another… two pages?! Ugh!'"

NICE QUOTE


"Are you kidding me? If I want trivial and meaningless and surrealism it's my permanent option to help my mom cleaning our completely dustless wooden floor while dreaming Mr.Hiddleston will engage with me immediately"


"I have to say as a former English lit major and lifelong reader, this book does nothing for me and I thank all my teachers who spared me from this terribly over rated relic from 200 years ago"


"This was, without a doubt, the worst book I've ever read. As another reviewer said, it is very insipid. Reminds me of the stupid high school romances that happen every day. There are crushes and drama queens and unrealistic characters galore. The only advantage of reading it in my case was for the rather skilled writing, but this eventually got to be quite annoying as well, as I struggled to read faster near the end in order to finish the darn thing. I understand that it is supposed to be a representation of the time period and such, but as far as anybody enjoying the people and situations in this book, all I can say is that nobody really makes the right decision, and so much of it is sin. For instance, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet clearly do not love each other and are both terribly selfish. Throughout the whole book, marriage is referred to as a commodity and necessity of life, with the only advantages being money and maybe some short amount of happiness. Lydia is as sinful as to chase only after flirting and love at all times, and in the end commits adultery, not repenting in the least afterwards. Cute? No. It's just outright sin. Also, the parents aren't told about anything regarding Elizabeth's romance until all is settled, and then when one is told, the other must be told separately. What kind of communication between husband and wife is that? And another thing; what seems to be celebrated most in this book is lust! About 90% of it is girls thinking blissfully about men, or the other way around. I cannot view this stuff as anything more than sin. Maybe some girls find it 'romantic' or 'funny' when Mr. Bingley moves in and all the Bennet girls can think about is whether one of them can marry him. I don't. I think it's sad."

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