So -- you've read the book, seen the movies, watched the TV adaptations (and in my case, given the lectures, taught the seminars, edited the novel for a DVD edition that never appeared). Do we really need another version of Pride and Prejudice? In this case, a resounding yes. Audible has just brought out a new recording, read by actress Rosamund Pike, and I've enjoyed every minute of it.
The work is rather too light, and bright, and sparkling; it wants shade...
So, famously and ironically, wrote Jane Austen to her sister after she'd finished what would turn out to be her most popular book. But though it certainly is all these things, isn't that the very reason we love the novel? And anyway, though Lizzie Bennet's quick mind and witty speech have made her many people's favourite heroine, the book does raise some serious and interesting issues. I was particularly interested listening to it this time around in how much the question of social class raised its head -- in fact this is really the crux of Lizzie and Darcy's love story. Presumably readers of Austen's day would have had a clearer understanding of the fine gradations between the classes, but Austen spells it out for us helpfully: Mr Bennett obviously married somewhat beneath himself, hence the supposedly unfortunate relations that Mrs Bennett brought to the family. Her equally silly sister Mrs Phillips' husband is an attorney, or rather low level kind of lawyer, and her brother Mr Gardiner is in trade. It's these connections that are made much of by Miss Bingley and her sister when they see signs of Darcy's interest in Elizabeth and try to put him off her (which is ironic, since the Bingley fortune undoubtedly came originally from trade). And of course they are partly right, as Darcy's unfortunate first proposal, when he speaks of his 'sense of her inferiority -- of its being a degradation -- of the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclination' show that he is keenly aware of the gap in their backgrounds. But Darcy is in for a surprise when he meets Mr and Mrs Gardiner -- perhaps his first encounter with respectable tradespeople -- and finds he likes them enormously. We may also note that Austen doesn't have much time for aristocrats (Darcy is upper class but not titled), if Lady Catherine is anything to go by.
If you saw the 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice, you may remember Rosamund Pike playing Jane Bennett (Lizzie was of course Keira Knightly). Well, on the strength of this reading, I'd be happy to cast her as Lizzie. I very much enjoyed listening to her reading the novel, and thought she captured the various characters very successfully -- her Mrs Bennett was a particular joy. If you've never read the book, this would be a wonderful opportunity to catch up with one of the most celebrated novels in the English language, and if you have, you'll still find so much to love on hearing it this way. I certainly did, and was sorry when it came to an end. Highly recommended.