“An intelligent and generous companion to Pride and Prejudice: its author and her era, characters, language, reception, [and] adaptations.” —Sydney Morning Herald
Pride and Prejudice has a fair claim to being the world’s favorite novel. Read and studied from Cheltenham to China, it’s been translated into many languages and made into countless films.
This book, from longtime Jane Austen Society of Australia president Susannah Fullerton, describes how Austen wrote her masterpiece, its lukewarm initial reception, and its evolving popularity. As well as discussing sex-symbol Mr. Darcy, charming heroine Elizabeth Bennet, and the superb range of comic characters, she discusses the novel’s style: its wicked irony, brilliant structuring, and revolutionary use of the technique known as “free indirect speech.”
Readers through the years have both loved the book and hated it, and the reactions of writers, politicians, artists, and explorers can tell us as much about the reader as they do about the book itself. Pride and Prejudice has morphed into many strange and interesting forms: screen adaptations, sequels, prequels, and updates. Happily Ever After explores these—and the wilder shores of zombies, porn, dating manuals, T-shirts, tourism, and therapy.
“[The illustrations are] as much fun as the text.” —Star-Tribune
“An enjoyable and loyally enthusiastic tribute . . . contains thoughtful plot and character summaries useful for orienting the school student, and is full of trivia for Austen enthusiasts (the term ‘Janeites’ was coined in 1884).” —Times Literary Supplement