This was a long read, but that was mainly due to the edition of the book I borrowed from my local library. This edition contained beautiful colored illustrations and a glossary explaining some words or phrases that were common back In Ms. Austen's time that most readers may be unfamiliar with. There is also a really cool timeline in the front of the book that shows the beginning of the relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.

This book also included two page explanations throughout the book about the classes, courtship, education, etc. I really enjoyed reading about that as well. One thing to note is that when I checked back on Amazon.com, I saw that this book is available via the Kindle. However, most of the Kindle reviews mention there being an issue with reading the footnotes at the bottom of the pages, and the illustrations not coming through clearly. I plan on buying this book and making it a permanent part of my bookshelves at home.

I did love reading this story in it's entirety and it was wonderful to watch Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy start to fall in love with one another though they both did their best to avoid it. This book is called Pride and Prejudice referencing the 'pride' of Elizabeth and the 'prejudice' of Mr. Darcy. However, I think that both characters show pride and prejudice throughout the story.

For example, we see Elizabeth's pride when she continues to overlook how nice Mr. Darcy is being to her just because she overheard him refusing to dance with her when they first met. Her prejudice comes into play when you see how unfavorably she looked upon Charlotte for marrying Mr. Collins when she had to realize that she really had no other options. Additionally, she was prideful and prejudiced towards Bigley's sister Caroline and it dismayed her to see that Jane thought well of her.

We get to see Mr. Darcy's pride too when it comes to him not willing to divulge to all when he should have about Wickham's character. When we read on how Wickham left debts that Mr. Darcy had to take care of, that right there would have been enough for me to warn others. We also see his prejudice towards the people of Longbourn and thinking them his inferior.

Mrs. Bennet as a character was maddening to me. I can sympathize with her though since in that time and place having nothing but daughters meant that when her husband died, the land, house, etc. would all go to the nearest male heir. That said, she had no sense of decorum about anything and I silently cringed anytime the woman said anything to someone outside her own family circle.

I was disappointed with Mr. Bennet too. It's pretty obvious except for Jane and Elizabeth he treats the other children with indifference. And you can see at times how much he loathes his wife. Frankly, if that's what I was raised with, like Elizabeth I would not be so keen on marrying a man unless it was for love.

The initial part of the book did drag a bit until we get to Jane going to visit Netherfield Park (where Bingley is residing) and becoming ill. We get to some excellent sparring between Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy, and Bingley's sister Caroline.

When Mr. Wickham is introduced to the story we then have a slow down again in the story. I can understand it though because Ms. Austen had to build him up so to speak to make him seem to be the complete opposite of Mr. Darcy. If I was a true cold reader not knowing anything I do about this story, I would have thought to myself, ahh this is the man that Elizabeth should be with and not that nasty Mr.. Darcy. Watching Elizabeth start to think romantically about Mr. Wickham made me cringe (this could have totally went the way of Marianne with Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility) have this charming man who seems to be the total opposite of Mr. Darcy that you have Elizabeth starting to think about romantically. Her conversations about Mr. Darcy with Wickham and others was not well done of her, and seemed like something her mother would have done. We have Elizabeth in my opinion acting like a brat based on the say-so of one person.

When we get to Elizabeth rejection the proposal of Mr. Darcy and then finding out all about what part he played in persuading Mr. Bingley that Jane did not care for him and how Mr. Wickham was 'disinherited' the story once again moves quite quickly.

Elizabeth had her eyes opened by what Mr. Darcy told her and she finally realizes that he father has done somewhat a disservice to his family for ignoring the shenanigans of his daughters and allowing her mother to constantly throw her daughters at men.

Then we have Elizabeth traveling with the Gardiners (her aunt and uncle) and coming across Pemberly. I loved how Ms. Austen describes the place and it was great to see Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy coming across one another again. Seeing Elizabeth wrong-footed and not knowing how to act with her now realizing she is starting to fall for Mr. Darcy was great.

We eventually get to the end with both Elizabeth and Jane happily married and even even tempered Mr. Bingley realizing that he and Jane need to move to be away from her mother which caused me to laugh. I would have moved somewhere where I would only see her once a year if that, but that's just me.

Probably the only thing I could quibble with is that we don't get a chance to get into the heads of some of the secondary characters and some we do. For example, we get to see why Charlotte Lucas was okay with marrying Mister Collins. However, the second couple in this story, Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley we don't get much information on except for here and there. I wonder if there is a version out there of this story told from their points of view? I would love to read it.
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