An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism A Norton Critical Edition
Paperback, 413 pages
English language
Published July 15, 2001 by W. W. Norton & Company.
A perennial favorite in the Norton Critical Editions series, Pride and Prejudice is based on the 1813 first edition text, which has been thoroughly annotated for undergraduate readers. "Backgrounds and Sources" includes biographical portraits of Austen by members of her family and by acclaimed biographers Claire Tomalin and David Nokes. Seventeen of Austen's letters - eight of them new to the Third Edition - allow readers to glimpse the close-knit society that was Austen's world, both in life and in her writing. Samples of Austen's early writing - from the epistolary Love and Friendship and A Collection of Letters allow readers to trace her growth as a writer as well as to read her fiction comparatively. "Criticism" features eighteen assessments of the novel by nineteenth- and twentieth-century commentators, six of them new to the Third Edition. Among them is an interview with Colin Firth on the recent BBC television adaptation …
A perennial favorite in the Norton Critical Editions series, Pride and Prejudice is based on the 1813 first edition text, which has been thoroughly annotated for undergraduate readers. "Backgrounds and Sources" includes biographical portraits of Austen by members of her family and by acclaimed biographers Claire Tomalin and David Nokes. Seventeen of Austen's letters - eight of them new to the Third Edition - allow readers to glimpse the close-knit society that was Austen's world, both in life and in her writing. Samples of Austen's early writing - from the epistolary Love and Friendship and A Collection of Letters allow readers to trace her growth as a writer as well as to read her fiction comparatively. "Criticism" features eighteen assessments of the novel by nineteenth- and twentieth-century commentators, six of them new to the Third Edition. Among them is an interview with Colin Firth on the recent BBC television adaptation of the novel. Also included are pieces by Richard Whately, Margaret Oliphant, Richard Simpson, D. W. Harding, Dorothy Van Ghent, Alistair Duckworth, Stuart Tave, Marilyn Butler, Nina Auerbach, Susan Morgan, Claudia L. Johnson, Susan Fraiman, Deborah Kaplan, Tara Goshal Wallace, Cheryl L. Nixon, David Spring, Edward Ahearn, and Donald Gray. Also included are a Note on Money, a Chronology of Austen's life and an updated Selected Bibliography. --Back cover
I expected something deeper/monumental, having known nothing about the book before. But for such an old book it is well written and the characters and love story are cute ☺️
I finished this in agony. The dialogue is witty at times, but always at such a boring, inconsequential level. Most of the conversation is about how agreeable or disagreeable this or that person is, and while Austen tries to address this superficiality with the character of Mr. Darcy, his character arc is extremely superficial in its own way. Actually, this dickhead very predictably turns out to be a very kind, lovely and agreeable man once you get to know him.
The characters are boring. Mr. Darcy makes the very predictable transformation from total dickhead to precious darling in basically the snap of a finger. Elizabeth's only character trait seems being a smart-ass. Jane is a gullible fool. Mr. Collins is ugly and disagreeable. All Mrs. Bennet ever worries about is marrying her daughters. And Mr. Bennet doesn't ever give a shit about anything, except his daughter Lydia being …
I finished this in agony. The dialogue is witty at times, but always at such a boring, inconsequential level. Most of the conversation is about how agreeable or disagreeable this or that person is, and while Austen tries to address this superficiality with the character of Mr. Darcy, his character arc is extremely superficial in its own way. Actually, this dickhead very predictably turns out to be a very kind, lovely and agreeable man once you get to know him.
The characters are boring. Mr. Darcy makes the very predictable transformation from total dickhead to precious darling in basically the snap of a finger. Elizabeth's only character trait seems being a smart-ass. Jane is a gullible fool. Mr. Collins is ugly and disagreeable. All Mrs. Bennet ever worries about is marrying her daughters. And Mr. Bennet doesn't ever give a shit about anything, except his daughter Lydia being a slut (at least the novel wants you to look at her like that). In fact, Lydia is perhaps the most interesting character of all, but the epilogue clearly shows that we're supposed to hate her for not marrying rich and trying to obtain money from her sisters who did better on that end.
If the one-dimensionality of the characters is supposed to be for the purposes of satire, well then Austen forgot to make it funny.
