Oh, Mr. Darcy!

I'm just about to settle down to watch Pride & Prejudice. And yes, I know it's the middle of the night and I have class tomorrow but I don't care. I'm a grown-up (most of the time) and I can do whatever I want to! Besides who can resist the romance of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy? I once read somewhere that Pride & Prejudice is the quintessential love story and that every other love story thereafter is just a different rendition of it. I don't know that I agree with that but there are certainly plenty of stories that have been modeled upon it. There are so many commentaries to be made on the novel and the novelist, not the least of which is the fact that Jane Austen was ahead of her time as a female writer, but I haven't time to go into it all here and now. I just want to say that despite what some people may say the sole appeal of the story isn't that it is a romance with a happy ending, there is so much more to it than that. Isn't part of the appeal that we can see ourselves reflected in one if not several of the characters in the story? It was written in a different time and place and yet the characters are still accessible to people today. I find that to be true of all of Austen's novels. Superficially they may seem to be love stories but each of them is a study of people, of character, and there is so much to be gleaned from that even now.

Okay enough with the sensible talking, I want to ooh and aah over the dancing and dresses at the ball and listen to Elizabeth and Mr Darcy's spicy repartee!