Customer Reviews

Pride and Prejudice

5 star:		(435)
4 star:		(80)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

elizabeth Bennet is a wilful, head strong girl, and when she first meets Mr Darcy she thinks him to be an arrogant, conceited man who dislikes her as much as she does him. when she later discovers that darcy has involved himself in the love affair of her sister jane and mr bingley, and the awful treatment of her newly discovered friend mr wickham, she is determined to hate him even more.
the story that follows is a delightfully funny and well observed tale of the dating game. and Austen's wonderful way of writing characters and there behaviour is absolutely captivating, before you know it you're drawn in to the story, willing Mr darcy and lizzie to realise how they truly feel!
for a casual reader who has not got the time to listen to the entire thing, i would recommend this as it runs at a quite comfortable 5 3/4 hours on 6 CD's. Joanna David's lovely honey voice carries you through and it draws you in, her voicing of Mrs Bennet is especially good.
however i would not recommend this for students as the book is abridged on these CD's, though the editing is done skilfully and the story lines carried nicely through the bits that are left out.

Yes, I know this is free so you can't expect much from a free book but why can't we have the full text? This is my favourite classic and I was looking forward to reading the e-version but feel I have been cheated. One of my reasons for getting a Kindle was the promise of free classics and now I'm finding it be a promise with hidden terms and conditions.
I'm sure this version is great for someone who has not read the book but many of us have. I knew by the first page something was missing from this version. Just be careful which edition you download!

I first bought this book in its Kindle version a week ago. To be honest, I wasn't really that keen on it. I was only persuaded to read it because I was new to the Kindle and didn't yet have a lot of books to read on it. I expected it to be tedious. I didn't find the title promising, for one thing. And for another, I had an not entirely unreasonable feeling that, since this is rather an old book, it would contain really hard language and strange words. I started off the first couple of chapters with an ill grace, but soon I was captivated by Jane Austen's excellently woven plot about family and relationships. I simply couldn't stop reading, and I was so absorbed in it that I lost track of the time. It is now my most favorite book, which is actually quite surprising because I had never imagined that anything could beat the Harry Potter novels. Also, the Kindle format is very good, with an active table of contents and everything.

The rough outline of the story is about high-ranking Mr. Darcy, who has a massive amount of wealth and middle-class Elizabeth Bennett, who has a determined prejudice against Mr. Darcy because of his pride. As the passion between them grows,it becomes more and more unlikely of their being united. I also really like the way it is all so realistic and makes you believe every word of the book. I won't go into the plot to spoil the surprise.

I've really enjoyed this book...more than anything that I have ever read before, and I hope you will read and enjoy it too. I really recommend this book to anyone over ten years of age. It is a great read... Unmissable!!

I had the terrible misfortune to go to a school that insisted on making us read the most miserable old books for our English courses. For years afterwards I suffered under the assumption that anything labelled as a "classic" was certain to be grim and impenetrable, and I stuck to reading relatively modern novels.

I bless the day when I wrestled with my prejudice and picked up a friend's anthology of Austen's novels. I had heard plenty about Austen's "social observation" before. It's an unfortunate phrase, because it suggested to me that her writing would be interesting but a bit dry and academic. Not a bit of it.

All of the Austen novels I've read so far have been good, but Pride and Prejudice is head and shoulders above the rest and ranks as one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. The characters are fabulously drawn, from the odious Mr Collins and the vacuous Lydia to the blithe Mr Bingley and the truly heroic Lizzie Bennett. The book is wonderfully constructed, going through what seems to be fairly straightforward plot development before Mr Darcy's proposal puts the main protagonists through a second half full of suspense and heart-felt self-criticism. Austen's writing is clear, concise, full of acute observations and coloured with a wonderful sense of humour.

While the whole book is extremely satisfying, it is Lizzie who steals the show. Much has been made of Mr Darcy's sex appeal, but most red-blooded men would find hard to deny that Miss Bennett is a deeply fascinating and attractive woman. She is fabulous throughout, and the story is peppered with moments where she delivers some truly marvelous dialogue, not least her reaction to Mr Darcy's proposal and her interview with Lady Catherine (which almost had me cheering out loud on the train into work). Strong-willed, intelligent, good-looking and cool under pressure; what a woman.

A fabulous book. How I wish I had read it years ago.

What do I think of Pride and Prejudice?
It's fantastic. Brilliant. Simply, a work of art.

Considering the fact that Austen was in her early twenties when she wrote this, her insight into the world was amazing. She understood exactly what everyone thought of everyone else and why.

The heroine of this Austen story is Elizabeth Bennet, the second of five girls in the Bennet family. Certainly, the first line of this Austen novel is to be remembered throughout the ages....'It is a fact universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife.'

The brilliant humour in this book offsets the quite serious task of a poor family of having only daughters trying to find a rich husband. One rich husband is not difficult to find, but five?? Surely an impossible task.

The book itself while it is less than 400 pages, is still full to brim with content. There is not a second where you are bored or let down. A brilliant and moving read, certainly a book that will never be forgotten.

Without a doubt the best book i have ever read. If you have seen the film starring keira knightley I personally feel it is a poor reflection of the book itself. The film seemed so serious all the way through when in actual fact the book is fun and makes you smile throughout. Do not let that film discourage you as the only good adaptation of it was the drama on bbc years ago. I recommend it to anyone as it is an excellent book that you will not want to put down as you will constantly wonder will they or won't they where Elizabeth and Mr Darcy are concerned. A very modern book for its time with Elizabeth a headstrong young woman who loves her family and thinks Mr Darcy is a snob and Mr Darcy who falls in love with Elizabeth but must banish her opinion of him. Deffinetly buy it you won't be disapointed.

Pride and Prejudice is probably one of the liveliest of Jane Austen's novels. It does make serious points about marrying for financial reasons - Charlotte Lucas and Mr Collins; and marrying for love - Lydia Bennett and George Wickham. Neither union is terribly satisfactory because of the people involved. There are also useful lessons about the disadvantages of both pride and prejudice in the person of Darcy and Elizabeth - both of whom grow and develop throughout the story.

The book is full of memorable characters - the prosy Mr Collins a clergyman everyone loves to hate; Lady Catherine De Burgh who is more proud even than Darcy himself. The easy going Mr Bennett who realises by the end of the book that being easy going is not always the best thing to be and his apparently silly wife who nonetheless understands a great deal about the ways of the world.

This audio edition of the book is well produced and Irene Sutcliffe's voice is perfect for it. She brings to life the various characters with just the right emphasis in the dialogue so that none of the nuances are missed by the listener. I certainly picked up things I had not noticed before when reading the text such as how very nice the Gardiners are and how much they have the best interests of their nieces at heart. Very entertaining and relaxing listening.

This was the first of Jane Austen's books I read and it remains my favourite. Pride and Prejudice is so well written, that a couple of hundred years down the line, it is still easy to understand and easy to relate to.

I love that each of the character's failings are brought out, it just makes them so very human! And yet despite being aware of Mr Darcy's pride and stiffness, Lydia's silliness, Mrs Bennett's complaints, etc, the reader is still drawn to them.

The dialogue, the description and the human touch throughout this lovely novel is what makes it timeless.

As an aside, this edition of the book is great as the author's original spelling has been left unchanged, and it's not full of appendixes and notes.

Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite books and I have read it many times over the years. This audio version is the best I have ever found. Irene Sutcliffe reads the book beautifully and it is unabridged which is the only way to read Jane Austen,in my opinion!

I was given this audio book as tapes some 10 years ago and was thrilled to find it again on cd. If you love the book you'll love this version of it. I have listened to lots of audio versions but none beat it. Buy it and enjoy!

This book is irresistable. Darcy set the standard for the male love interest. Moody, passionate - you know he's proud, but you just can't help it. And Lizzie, in the context of the time and Jane Austen's class, she's a throughly modern girl. Intelligent, strong-willed and opinionated - you know she's going to get THE man.I've read this book countless times and enjoyed it on so many levels. Pure romance; social commentary on a certain section of society in C18th; satire of the manners of a certain section of society; and the whole "my word that Lizzie Bennett is a very HEALTHY" - nudge, nudge, wink, wink - "girl. Walking all that way here, with her rosy cheeks, eh!"