Hi there! My name is Ani and this is Reader’s Report, where I review a book that I’ve read recently and explain exactly how I feel about it to you lovely people. I was inspired to continue these book reviews from the previous articles featured on the Hoot called “BookTok: Worth it or Not?” and since the author Victoria Morrongiello ’23 has now graduated, I am taking on the honor of continuing these reviews in some way, shape or form. 

This next review is for “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. I know, it’s really underground and by an indie author so you’ve probably never heard of it before. But the good thing is, I’m here to give you a review and summary of the whole thing!

“Pride and Prejudice” is one of those books that makes you feel as though you’re reading for class credit. You read it in the same way as “Great Expectations” or “Of Mice and Men”. At some point though (once you get used to the language) you realize that Jane Austen was actually a really good author, which may not come off as a revelation for most people, but it really was for me. She has a very specific way of capturing moments in her books and she was one of the only people at the time that was able to do it from a woman’s perspective. 

This leads me to my next point: this book is SUCH a girl’s book. Not to say that anyone can’t read it, don’t get me wrong. I want you to read this book, it’s so iconic. But while I was reading it, it was almost comforting to see that the women in these books were literally me. Their actions, thoughts and behaviors were that of a 20-year-old girl today. And sure, they’re all fictional, but Jane Austen wasn’t; she was a living, breathing woman of the time and she was able to capture this moment in a time where women were just being women.

You may think that just because this book is old, its ideologies are super outdated (and when the ideology is getting married to your cousin, I really hope it is). How many times have you cried over a man that you really secretly like destroying your sister’s engagement and embarrassing your family to the rest of the upper class world? I’m hoping never. But the moments in between the main plot of the book: Elizabeth gossiping with her sisters, Kitty and Lydia eavesdropping on her parents’ conversations, the sisters aggressively thirsting over men, Jane and her protectiveness over her siblings; these were the moments that were real. They’re not just traditions that we grew out of, if anything they are representative of the ones we kept. 

The book itself is super fun. Again, once you get past the fact that the language is sort of hard, it just reads like a romance novel. It has all the elements that any good enemies to lovers book would have, tension, stress, angst, enemies and lovers (eventually). Watching Darcy change his view of Elizabeth throughout the book is sweet and also really funny. He seems to have these revelations all at once and for the audience; his change in demeanor is abrupt. One moment he’s telling Elizabeth that her family is inferior, and the next he’s proposing. 

Do I recommend watching the movie first? Honestly, yes. Only because it gives you a good overview of what the book is about, and acts like a summary for the book. That’s not to say that it’s not a good movie—the 2005 version is actually one of my favorite movies ever and I can literally quote it from memory. But it’s helpful to watch it beforehand just to get a good idea of what you’re reading (also because it’s a good movie, in case you didn’t catch that).

So do I think you should read it? YES. If this were a mafia romance book with a billionaire CEO aesthetic, you already know that the girls would be all over it. Maybe that should be a plot for another book. Let’s be honest, it probably already exists. 

Well anyway, I’ll see you next time.