Pride and Prejudice
Novel by Jane Austen
A prejudice comes prior to judgement and before the full facts are known.
The Audiobook
Steve Patriarca has lent his voice to the author. You can download/stream the audiobook, 3 separate parts of it, or just listen freely to an audio-sample.
| Narrator | Steve Patriarca |
| Publisher | Steve Patriarca Audiobooks |
| Published | March 24, 2018 |
| Language | English |
| Duration | 11 h 48 min |
| Format | MP3 Audiobook (128 kbit/s) |
| Size | 809,9 MB (1130 tracks) |
| Vendor: | |
| Spotify | Login and listen for free |
The Story
The story of Pride and Prejudice is well enough known but the greatness of this novel is in the detail – details which are not always revealed by dramatization and can only really be apprehended by reading the words on the page.
This novel creates for us a wonderful panorama of characters from the worthy and respectable to the grotesque, in the play of those characters we see pride, in all its forms – proper justifiable pride and pride which becomes mere vanity or self-importance. If Jane Austen’s leading characters are there to learn judgement they can only do so when freed of inappropriate pride and prejudice. A prejudice comes prior to judgement and before the full facts are known.
In this novel the heroine, Elizabeth Bennet comes to learn what real judgement is through her relationship with Darcy; Darcy in turn learns from Elizabeth what proper pride is and what is vanity. Yes, Pride and Prejudice is a romantic novel but that is not all it is; it is at times philosophical, it deals with the development of the human mind – it is in part a novel about education.
Enjoyment
Of course the main object of this reading is enjoyment. Once you have become used to Jane Austen’s irony you will easily catch her humour. But if a novel we enjoy and which sometimes makes us laugh, also has the power to make us wiser, then this is surely no bad thing indeed.
Once considered “girls’ novels” and romances, no one who has ever read Austen can be comfortable with such condescending descriptions. There is romance certainly, but there is also danger and even tragedy. The plight of women for whom a husband – even an unsuitable one – is the only alternative to penury is well evidenced by the stoic suffering of Charlotte Collins in Pride and Prejudice.
About Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born in 1775 and died in 1817 and is generally considered to be one of the greatest English novelists, valued for her robust style and detailed characterisation, together with the genius of telling a good story.
Her novels have a strong moral sense and a philosophical tone adopted directly or indirectly from Aristotle. The titles often introduce abstract ideas and fine distinctions such as pride and prejudice; sense and sensibility and persuasion. But they are saved from pomposity by Austen’s self-deprecating wit and irony and her playful sense of humour.
There are many occasions when Jane Austen makes us laugh but there are also times when she penetrates the depth of human nature in a way which might also give us thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.