Pride & Prejudice

I have a guilty pleasure that no one outside of our home knows about.  The truth is that while I am tackling a big cleaning project I watch the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice!  It is six hours of enjoyment that I carry with me from room to room on my daughter's portable DVD.  I don't know if I have watched the series or read the book more, but I never grow tired of the love story unfolding between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth

My husband started my Jane Austen obsession when he gave me a copy of her novel, Sense and Sensibility.  Since then I have read everything written by Jane Austen and have seen several movies adapted from her books.  Although I have enjoyed them all, none holds a candle to the story that is told from the homes of Longbourn, Netherfield Park and Pemberley.  The books were written over two hundred years ago, but the characters still seem real today.  Everyone knows a proud man, stubborn young woman, an incurable flirt, a person of little sense, a long winded clergyman, etc.  My daughter happened upon me during one of my cleaning sessions and even she was drawn into the series. When it wrapped up, she looked at me and said,  "I know who the mother reminds me of!  It's that woman at our church!"

The writing is wonderful and the characters are fascinating.  That, however, is not why I continue my fifteen year obsession with her novels.  Ultimately, if the truth be told, it is the happy ending that always leads me back to Jane Austen.  I will leave the grief and sadness that encompasses Wuthering Heights and A Portrait of a Lady for others to read.