Pride and Prejudice, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and the Woman Behind It All

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." (Pride and Prejudice p. 1)
        The quote above is the opening line of the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I cannot think of any better way to open the book than through that quote. There is nothing I love more than the opening lines of certain books and the book I am making this blog post about is specifically one of those books (the other being David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, which I have not actually finished). As I sit here writing in my backyard, I wonder if Jane Austen ever pictured a seventeen year old girl writing an entire blog post about her and one of the books that she wrote. I do not think that the thought would have ever crossed her mind. I hope that I can do justice to her and to her book, though.
        Pride and Prejudice focuses mainly on the Bennet family, and more importantly the five Bennet sisters. The oldest is Jane, the second oldest is Elizabeth (affectionately dubbed Lizzie), and then there is Mary, Kitty (Catherine), and Lydia. Then there is Mrs. Bennet who is too involved in finding her daughters a good match with a wealthy man to worry about anything else going on in her life; and then there is Mr. Bennet, who does not want his daughters to go through the same things that he did when he married Mrs. Bennet (which is basically the complete opposite of what Mrs. Bennet wants). There are other characters that are introduced throughout the book, such as: Mr. Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mr. Bingley, Bingley's siblings, Georgiana Darcy, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and others that I do not care to even mention because it would most likely make this blog post far too long.
     Basically, the entire book is about the sisters falling in love and finding agreeable matches. I do not know how to write it in simpler terms that are easier to understand, other than the whole book follows that scheme. Jane Austen writes about the romances pertaining to three of the Bennet sisters; Jane, Lizzie, and Lydia. She was obviously not concerned with the the other two sisters falling in love, because that would have been more to read and would have made for a much longer book. (Okay, I want to see a happy ending for Mary, she was forgotten with everything!) One of my favorite parts of the book has to do with the romantic encounters of Lizzie and Mr. Darcy. Lizzie is everything that I want to be, but I am more like Lydia in some aspects. Lizzie absolutely hates Darcy, but he begins to fall in love with her. He basically tells her this and says, "You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." That was where I became attached to Mr. Darcy's character.
    The plot of the book and the events that take place in it left something to be desired, but I found everything at least slightly interesting. There were some points where my attention was completely taken and there were others where I would stare forlornly at the book from across the room, wanting to read it but not wanting to pick it up and start in on it again. The relationship I had with Pride and Prejudice is a relationship that I have had with many books, though. I wish that I had loved the book. The book dragged on at points and then it would speed up, and I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed certain other classics. The plot was what I said earlier in the post: the sisters fall in love. The books revolves around that for the most part.
    I am not sure what I gained through reading the book, but I am rather proud of myself for having read it, like I mentioned earlier. I bought the book Pride and Prejudice back in February. I did not start reading it until a few months later when I actually had the time to read it. Before I read it, I was introduced to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a modern day portrayal of the book put out by Hank Green. I greatly enjoyed watching the diaries. They came out once a week and they ended at the end of March 2013, unfortunately. "Lizzie" and "Lydia" became extremely real during the time that I watched the diaries. I became emotionally invested in their lives and I eagerly awaited to see what would happen next, because I honestly had no idea what would happen having not read the books. Both "Lizzie" and "Lydia" has video diary channels of their own, but "Lizzie" was consistent and put out videos every week that I greatly enjoyed. The characters remained mostly the same, some characters were not there, though, and it was confusing once I started reading the book. At the end of March I was sad to see the diaries end, but I knew what I needed to do. I needed to actually read the book.
       It was a month or so before I finally started reading it. I was trying to finish up The Once and Future King by T.H. White, and if you want to know how I felt about that, you can look at my past blog posts. After I finished that book, I started reading the titular book of the blog post I am writing here. It took a good month and a half to read it and I finally finished it last Thursday, because I had made plans to watch the movie with my best friend that Friday.
      I have to say that all of the nagging my friends did to get me to read the book was not really worth it. I liked the book but it was not my favorite book, and I feel as if I am perfectly free to admit that, because this is my blog. I am glad that I read it because I feel more accomplished now, but that is about it. I am not madly in love with the book like my friends said I would be and that disappoints me more than anything. I do want to thank Jane Austen though. I can imagine now that she is looking down from her grand library in the sky and smiling at me, or she is turning in her grave right now due to my awful depiction of her books. (Please, do not spite me Jane, you seem like a very lovely woman.)

And with that, I bid you all adieu and I will see you all with my next blog post.