Pride & Prejudice = 25 down, 75 to go

Classic

Pride & Prejudice
Jane Austen
480 pages

The literary titles Emma, Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice have been on the edge of my peripheral vision since early high school well through the beginning of college when I declared English as my major. And at least two of them continued to take up real estate on my bookshelf through the intervening years.

It's just taken until year 34 of my life for me to pick up one of Jane Austen's literary ventures and read it - though in my defense, I have seen it in theatrical form. I enjoyed the book's formal dialogue and found the proper interaction between social classes and the sexes more than slightly amusing.

When I read books taking place in the 1800s, I always try to imagine myself in the place of a woman of that time and wonder what type of patience I would have had with all of the rules and social expectations. I hope that I might have been somewhat similar in disposition to the second oldest of the five Bennet sisters, Elizabeth - strong in herself and her principles, not willing to back down from a challenge (including her garden conversation with Lady Catherine de Bourgh), but at the same time is willing to admit a change in opinion or beliefs when shown the full truth.