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"The great benefit of Spacks's notes, set out in columns beside the text, and sometimes occupying whole facing pages, is that they make you read more slowly. Instead of letting Austen's delicious confection slip down like a syllabub, you have to think about each sentence, and that enriches and complicates everything." --Sunday Times, 19 December 2010
Product Description
Along with the plays of William Shakespeare and the works of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen's novels are among the most beloved books of Western literature. "Pride and Prejudice" (1813) was in Austen's lifetime her most popular novel, and it was the author's personal favorite. Adapted many times to the screen and stage, and the inspiration for numerous imitations, it remains today her most widely read book. Now, in this beautifully illustrated and annotated edition, distinguished scholar Patricia Meyer Spacks instructs the reader in a larger appreciation of the novel's enduring pleasures and provides analysis of Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, Lady Catherine, and all the characters who inhabit the world of "Pride and Prejudice." This edition will be treasured by specialists and first-time readers, and especially by devoted Austen fans who think of themselves as Friends of Jane. In her Introduction, Spacks considers Austen's life and career, the continuing appeal of "Pride and Prejudice," and its power as a stimulus for fantasy (Maureen Dowd, writing in "The New York Times," can hold forth at length on Obama as a Darcy-figure, knowing full well her readers will 'understand that she wished to suggest glamour and sexiness'). Her Introduction also explores the value and art of literary annotation. In her running commentary on the novel, she provides notes on literary and historical contexts, allusions, and language likely to cause difficulty to modern readers. She offers interpretation and analysis, always with the wisdom, humor, and light touch of an experienced and sensitive teacher.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Just when I thought I had more editions of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE than I should ever own up to, I will freely admit to just one more. After all, what Janeite could resist this tempting package? An unabridged first edition text; Annotations by an Austen scholar; Color illustrations; Over-sized coffee table format; Extensive introduction; And, supplemental material - all pulled together in a beautifully designed interior and stunning cover. *swoon* Where are my aromatic vinegars?
This new annotated edition appeals to modern readers on many levels beyond being a pretty package of a beloved classic. Austen is renowned for her witty dialogue and finely drawn characters, but not for her elaborate physical descriptions or historical context. When PRIDE AND PREJUDICE was originally published in 1813, this brevity was accessible to her contemporary readers who assumed the inferences, but after close to two hundred years words have changed their meaning, insinuations and subtle asides have become fuzzy, and cultural differences from Regency to twenty-first century are worlds apart. Anyone can read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and follow the narrative, but it is so much more enjoyable if you can read it on an expanded level understanding it in social, cultural and historical context. Editor Patricia Meyer Spacks has not only added extensive notes on plot, characters, events, history, culture and critical analysis from a vast array of Austen and literary scholars, but added her own personal insights and observations from years of reading Austen and her experience as a college professor. From shoe roses to Fordyces Sermons to military floggings to the 19th-century meaning of condescension, readers will be informed and enlighted on every aspect related to the novel, the author and her times. In a nut shell, she has vetted great resources, gathered nuggets of knowledge and placed them at our feet.
As with all of Austen's characters, this new annotated edition of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE has its own charms, "frailties, foibles and follies." Weighing in at over three pounds, and encompassing 464 pages of unabridged text and fine print margin notes, this book easily reigns as the most all-inclusive and well-researched edition of Jane Austen's masterpiece that I have ever encountered. Considering that the elaborate annotation classifies it as a reference work in addition to a full text, it is quite puzzling that it lacks an index. In addition, the illustrations are expertly selected but sadly lost some of their refinement in the printing process, coming across dark and murky in places. However, I was pleased to see a list of further reading and illustration credits listed in the back of the book to encourage readers to "add something more substantial, in the improvement of [their] minds by extensive reading."
Beautiful, sumptuous and satisfying, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: AN ANNOTATED EDITION is a monumental achievement that should be on the top of your holiday wish list and considered one of few editions available to be esteemed truly accomplished.
Laurel Ann, Austenprose
This new annotated edition appeals to modern readers on many levels beyond being a pretty package of a beloved classic. Austen is renowned for her witty dialogue and finely drawn characters, but not for her elaborate physical descriptions or historical context. When PRIDE AND PREJUDICE was originally published in 1813, this brevity was accessible to her contemporary readers who assumed the inferences, but after close to two hundred years words have changed their meaning, insinuations and subtle asides have become fuzzy, and cultural differences from Regency to twenty-first century are worlds apart. Anyone can read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and follow the narrative, but it is so much more enjoyable if you can read it on an expanded level understanding it in social, cultural and historical context. Editor Patricia Meyer Spacks has not only added extensive notes on plot, characters, events, history, culture and critical analysis from a vast array of Austen and literary scholars, but added her own personal insights and observations from years of reading Austen and her experience as a college professor. From shoe roses to Fordyces Sermons to military floggings to the 19th-century meaning of condescension, readers will be informed and enlighted on every aspect related to the novel, the author and her times. In a nut shell, she has vetted great resources, gathered nuggets of knowledge and placed them at our feet.
As with all of Austen's characters, this new annotated edition of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE has its own charms, "frailties, foibles and follies." Weighing in at over three pounds, and encompassing 464 pages of unabridged text and fine print margin notes, this book easily reigns as the most all-inclusive and well-researched edition of Jane Austen's masterpiece that I have ever encountered. Considering that the elaborate annotation classifies it as a reference work in addition to a full text, it is quite puzzling that it lacks an index. In addition, the illustrations are expertly selected but sadly lost some of their refinement in the printing process, coming across dark and murky in places. However, I was pleased to see a list of further reading and illustration credits listed in the back of the book to encourage readers to "add something more substantial, in the improvement of [their] minds by extensive reading."
Beautiful, sumptuous and satisfying, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: AN ANNOTATED EDITION is a monumental achievement that should be on the top of your holiday wish list and considered one of few editions available to be esteemed truly accomplished.
Laurel Ann, Austenprose
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a beautifully produced book - though, at a size when open of 20 inches by 10 inches, it's a bit unwieldy for anybody used to handling paperbacks (or a Kindle!). The period illustrations are well chosen and excellently reproduced.
I suppose the main reason for buying the book would be the notes, and how valuable these will be to you will depend on your background and experience of reading JA. My impression is that they are pitched more at American than at English readers, and at college students rather than JA aficionados.
The notes of of two kinds. Many are simple explanations of the meanings of words, and I'm surprised by the sheer number of these. For example, how many readers need to be told that 'during the chief of the day' means 'during the main part of the day'? Or '(Lydia) .. had high animal spirits and a sort of natural self-consequence' means that she had 'great natural good humour' and 'natural self-importance'?
Other notes deal very well with the social background to the book, and provide a commentary on the characters and their relationships, but they are not terribly profound, and they didn't often give me any really striking new insights or information. Indeed, they sometime give the impression that they're intended for people for whom life in early 19th century England is utterly alien - we might be talking about the social relations between little green men and little green women on an Earth-like, but far distant, planet! On the other hand, some of the notes which I found most thought-provoking refer to other contemporary writing, especially JA's other novels and letters.
In a word, if you are already a JA enthusiast and know P&P really well, this book may be something of a disappointment; you may feel that it's not worth the, quite high, price. On the other hand, if JA is new to you, and, having seen a TV or film production of P&P, you want to read the original, this could be a very good way in.
Sorry if any of the above seems patronising. That wasn't the intention; the bottom line, of course, is that it's a matter of 'courses for horses'.
I suppose the main reason for buying the book would be the notes, and how valuable these will be to you will depend on your background and experience of reading JA. My impression is that they are pitched more at American than at English readers, and at college students rather than JA aficionados.
The notes of of two kinds. Many are simple explanations of the meanings of words, and I'm surprised by the sheer number of these. For example, how many readers need to be told that 'during the chief of the day' means 'during the main part of the day'? Or '(Lydia) .. had high animal spirits and a sort of natural self-consequence' means that she had 'great natural good humour' and 'natural self-importance'?
Other notes deal very well with the social background to the book, and provide a commentary on the characters and their relationships, but they are not terribly profound, and they didn't often give me any really striking new insights or information. Indeed, they sometime give the impression that they're intended for people for whom life in early 19th century England is utterly alien - we might be talking about the social relations between little green men and little green women on an Earth-like, but far distant, planet! On the other hand, some of the notes which I found most thought-provoking refer to other contemporary writing, especially JA's other novels and letters.
In a word, if you are already a JA enthusiast and know P&P really well, this book may be something of a disappointment; you may feel that it's not worth the, quite high, price. On the other hand, if JA is new to you, and, having seen a TV or film production of P&P, you want to read the original, this could be a very good way in.
Sorry if any of the above seems patronising. That wasn't the intention; the bottom line, of course, is that it's a matter of 'courses for horses'.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An excellent book. Although slightly irritating at times as it provides some seemingly obvious information (perhaps for the benefit of American readers whose current use of language, I have to assume from some of the notes, must be much further removed from the English of Jane Austen's time) it provided lots of insight into the wider cultural context of the novel; I didn't realise quite how feminist Austen's book is, despite appearing to be an old-fashioned romance. It has prompted further re-reading of other Austen novels and wider reading in Claire Tomalin's excellent biography of Jane Austen. Fascinating and highly recommmended.
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