O Prazer da Leitura (39)

Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

O Prazer da Leitura (36)

There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

O Prazer da Leitura (33)

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. 

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
1813

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife".

The opening of Jane Austen's ever-popular novel sets the tone of her sparkling comedy of manners and morals.

There are five daughters in the Bennet family and marriage is the only career open to them. There is naturally much excitement when two young men of good fortune move into the district. But before there can be a happy ending, the hero must conquer his overwhelming pride and Elizabeth, the spirited heroine, her prejudices against him. Only by taking the route to self-knowledge can they reach a mature understanding of each other and find lasting contentment. 

"Vanity, not love, has been my folly".

When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited, while he struggles to remain indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.

Em Português:
Título: Orgulho e Preconceito
Tradução: Maria Francisca Ferreira de Lima
Colecção: Livros de Bolso – Série Grandes Obras 
Ano: 2010

Orgulho e Preconceito" é, sem dúvida, uma das obras em que melhor se pode descobrir a personalidade literária de Jane Austen.

Com o fino poder de observação que lhe era peculiar, a autora dá-nos um retrato impressionante do que era o mundo da pequena burguesia inglesa do seu tempo:um mundo dominado pela mesquinhez do interesse, pelo orgulho e preconceitos de classe.
Esses "orgulho" e "preconceito" que, no romance, acabam por ceder o passo a outras razões com bem mais fundadas raízes no coração humano.

É com Orgulho e Preconceito que se dá a transição para a fase da maturidade da sua escrita, em que surgem os seus últimos e, possivelmente, melhores romances. Com o fino poder de observação que lhe era peculiar, a autora dá-nos um retrato impressionante do que era o mundo da pequena burguesia inglesa do seu tempo: um mundo dominado pela mesquinhez do interesse, pelo orgulho e preconceitos de classe. Esses orgulho e preconceito que, no romance, acabam por ceder o passo a outras razões com bem mais fundas raízes no coração humano.