A-Z 2021 - A: Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813)

 

Is this a kissing book?

        -The Grandson, The Princess Bride

I don't really know why it took me so long to get around to reading Pride and Prejudice.  Somehow, even with being very much a reader and focusing quite heavily on literature in my schooling in recent years, the only Austen I had read before now was minor works, and never any of the full-length novels.  At least in part, it's likely because I've traditionally had a preference toward reading sci-fi and fantasy, and perhaps away from romance novels, even ones considered major works of literature, such as Austen.

This is not to say that Austen is precisely what would be suggested by that simple genre label.  There is, after all, a big difference between the social satire that her novels contain and the Harlequin and Silhouette novels that are present in any bookstore and in most grocery stores, and it's rather doubtful that any of the latter are going to still be read 200 years after their initial publishing.  But what is it that makes Austen have such staying power?

Pride and Prejudice comes at this in several ways that give it some literary heft.  The first, quite simply, is that the first half of the book doesn't seem to be acknowledging that the protagonist is actually in a romance novel.  Elizabeth Bennet is quick-thinking, rational-minded, with an acerbic wit, and quite willing to express herself, even to those who exist on a different social stratum.  Fitzwilliam Darcy, the male lead in the piece, makes himself decidedly unlikable in his first introduction, acting aloofly toward anyone he doesnt already know and refusing any invitations to dance when it's rather a social faux-pas to not take part.  Lizzy pretty much hates him immediately, and this remains her position for much of the story.

The book was originally published in three volumes, and these actually function remarkably well as dividing lines for the action, as the first covers Darcy's initial visit to Lizzy's home township of Meryton, the second covers events when Lizzy runs into him again while staying in Kent, and the last detailing her brief visit to his home of Pemberley and the aftermath of that encounter.  We see how Darcy is slowly won over by Lizzy's charm, and how the mutual misunderstandings of the people around them both has brought about unfortunate consequences for Darcy's actions, to the point that he surprises her with a wedding proposal that she very firmly declines.  And yet, this mutual misunderstanding can be fixed, the actions remedied, and in fact Lizzy's hatred can be turned to admiration, and his essential good nature brought forward to counter his pride, letting him admit that he misread situations and is able to forgive past injury when it's best for all involved.

There is kissing in this book (sorry, young Fred Savage), but not between the characters that might be expected; this isn't a "kissing book".  In fact, all of the kissing is either familial in nature, or one case of a brother-in-law kissing Lizzy's hand.  Notably, not only is no physical affection between Lizzy and Darcy shown, but in fact anything more than walks in the country or organized ballroom dancing is kept out of sight; even the four marriages that happen are all 'off-screen', either happening far from Elizabeth's sight or between chapters.  It's not what I suspect most readers would expect out of a romance novel.

Perhaps my favorite set of interactions in the book, truly, were the verbal sparring that happened between Elizabeth and Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine.  I had a sort of mental image, though both characters in the book are younger than this, of the way that Lady Violet and Isobel Crawley reacted toward each other on Downton Abbey.  Lady Catherine is quite open about her disapproval of the very idea of a man marrying "beneath" himself, and is very much set on trying to force a match between Darcy and her daughter.  This goes so far as to have Lady Catherine visit the Bennet household purely to threaten Elizabeth with societal ostracization if she doesn't decline an impending second proposal from Darcy.  She is quite unprepared to handle Lizzy's utter lack of fear of her threats, and Darcy's own response to her subsequent attempt at interfering directly with him only results in, well...  The very proposal that she didn't want to happen.  Oops.

The general, overall theme underlying the comedy of manners that makes up the book is that people shouldn't trust their first impressions of others.  This seems to have been the original intention; Austen's original title when she first wrote this novel in the 1790s was to be First Impressions, though there is evidence that it was substantially rewritten over a decade later.  It is difficult to say what that earlier manuscript might have looked like, as there is no evidence of its continued existence; perhaps that is in some ways for the best, however, as what was published is an excellent read that I honestly wish I had picked up a lot sooner than I did.