Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I read the book pride and prejudice by Jane Austen. The book is about the Bennett family mainly who live in Longbourn, the family has a variety of very strong contrasting characters, Jane the eldest of five daughters and  is supposedly the most beautiful, Elizabeth who is my favourite character is really confident and witty, Mary the middle child is the intelligent quiet one and the youngest two are kitty and Lydia who are just silly and ditsy and love going to town to see the officers. Mrs Bennett main purpose in life is to get all five of her daughters married, preferably to wealthy men with large estates.

The main theme of this book is love, marriage and money. throughout the book all three themes are very apparent. Love is found in marriage and hopefully money is brought with marriage. You see love between Jane and Mr Bingley even at the very start when you see how he cares for her so much when she falls sick when she comes to visit him which contrasts with the love between Darcy and Elizabeth which is not very clear at the start but it becomes more apparent throughout the book.

The book starts with news of a new wealthy single man arriving in town to buy Netherfield park, Mr Bennett is sent out by Mrs Bennett for a social visit as she hopes that this young man will be the future husband of one of her daughters. Mr Bingley first meets Jane at a ball and falls for her beauty at first sight, he dances with her most of the night. Mr Darcy is also introduced but as an arrogant man with excessive pride as he refuses to dance with Elizabeth. Later on in the novel Jane goes to visit Mr Bingley in Netherfield park but has to stay there when she falls sick, , Elizabeth then travels to Netherfield park to take care of her sister and encounters Mr Darcy again with Ms Bingley, Mr Bingley's sister who is chasing Mr Darcy. Ms Bingley is not impressed with Elizabeth at all and her stay in Netherfield park is not the most pleasant and she is happy to return home.

Mr Collins a clergyman is then introduced who is supposed to be inheriting the Bennett's land, after a while he proposes to Elizabeth but is refused and later marries her friend Charlotte. The Bennetts and Mr Collins go to visit their uncle in town when they meet Wickham who is an officer, He tells Elizabeth of what a horrible man Darcy is and how he cheated him out of his inheritance, this adds to Elizabeth's dislike of Mr Darcy.

The book continues with more encounters between Elizabeth and Darcy and more marriages between the young ladies. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone. its beautifully written and is a grasping novel and quite humorous at parts.

Kyla O'dwyer