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Introduction of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Book. For over 150 years, Pride And Prejudice have remained one of the most popular novels.
Jane Austen herself called this brilliant work her "own darling child." Pride And Prejudice, the story of Mrs. Bennet's attempts to marry off her five daughters are one of the best-loved and most enduring classics in English literature.
Excitement fizzes through the Bennet household at Longbourn in Hertfordshire when young, eligible Mr. Charles Bingley rents the fine house nearby.
He may have sisters, but he also has male friends, and one of these—the haughty, and even wealthier, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy—irks the vivacious Elizabeth Bennet, the second of the Bennet girls. She annoys him. Which is how we know they must one day marry.
The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and Darcy is a splendid rendition of civilized sparring.
As the characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, Jane Austen's radiantly caustic wit and keen observation sparkle.
Jane Austen (December 16, 1775 - July 18, 1817) was a famous British female novelist. Her works mainly focus on the marriage and life of women in squire families. And the lively and witty words truly depict the small world of the world around her.
Austin has never been married and has a well-off family. Because she lives in a rural town, she comes into contact with small and medium-sized landlords, priests, and other characters and their quiet and comfortable living environment, so there are no major social conflicts in her works.
With the nuanced observation power unique to women, she truly depicts the small world around her, especially the marriage and love turmoil between gentlemen and ladies.
Her writing style is lighthearted and witty, full of comic conflict, and well-received by readers. From the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, vulgar and boring "sentimental novels" and "Gothic novels" flooded the British literary world, while Austen's novels were shabby and new, unconventionally showing the British rural middle class that had not yet been hit by the capitalist industrial revolution. daily life and idyllic scenery.
Her work often ridicules people's stupid, selfishness, snobby, and self-confidence through comedic scenes.
Austen's novels appeared in the early 19th century, swept away the trend of false romanticism, inherited and developed the British 18th century's excellent realism tradition, and prepared for the climax of 19th-century realism novels.
Although the breadth and depth of her works are limited, her works such as "Two-inch Ivory Sculpture", peeping through a small window to see the entire social form and the sophistication of the world, played a good role in changing the vulgar atmosphere in the creation of novels at that time.
The development history of British novels has the significance of linking the previous and the next, and is known as a writer whose status is "equal to Shakespeare".
Jane Austen was born in a priest family in Steventon, Hampshire, England, and lived a peaceful and well-off country life. With a total of eight siblings, Austin ranked sixth. She never went to a formal school, but when she was nine, she was sent to her sister's school as a companion.
Her sister, Cassandra, was her lifelong best friend, but Austen's enlightenment was more due to her father.
Austin loves reading and writing, and when he was eleven or twelve years old, he began to enjoy writing. As an adult, Austin moved with his family several times. In 1817, Austin was already ill and moved his family for the last time in order to seek medical treatment.
However, she died less than two months after arriving in Manchester. Buried in Winchester Cathedral. Jane Austen never married. He was only forty-one when he died.
As a girl, Jane Austen wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances. Her works were only published after much revision, with four novels being published in her lifetime. These are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816).
Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1818 with a biographical notice by her brother, Henry Austen, the first formal announcement of her authorship.
Persuasion was written in a race against failing health in 1815-16. She also left two earlier compositions, a short epistolary novel, Lady Susan, and an unfinished novel, The Watsons. At the time of her death, she was working on a new novel, Sanditon, a fragmentary draft of which survives.
"How shameful what I have done!" she exclaimed, "I have always been proud of myself, thinking that I can distinguish between right and wrong!—I have always regarded myself very highly, and thought I was capable! I often looked down on my sister's A kind of tolerant and kind, often showing unprofitable random suspicions, and satisfying his own vanity-what a shame this thing shakes out!-but it is also a shame! If I really fell in love, I would It can't be more pathetic than blind! But I'm not stupid in falling in love, but in vanity.--I was happy when a person had a crush on me when we first met, the other ignores me, and I get angry, so from either of them I invite prejudice and ignorance, and drive out the reason. Until now, I have They have no self-awareness.” --- Quoted from page 168
Blind, narrow-minded, extreme, absurd, and always a character that Elizabeth cannot change. After Darcy handed in the letter, the story basically began to turn. At least Elizabeth realized her own vanity. This short inner monologue also clarifies that the reason for Darcy's "arrogance" is actually her own prejudice.
We ourselves are habitually judging the world with prejudice and defining good and evil.
Short Comments: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Austin's English is very simple and suitable for English beginners to read. Reread, a little shallow. The ridiculous Mrs.Bennet is actually quite loving. Although stupid and vulgar, he really loves his daughter; Lydia is a rebellious character, but the "sin" of her and her husband is nothing in modern times, and I think it is quite personal. of. The story itself is very bland, but its strengths lie in:
The character's mood changes and grows;
The artistry of daily life is explored and organized into stories;
The contrast between the clown and the gentleman and the British humor;
The simple and clear language, no Regardless of description and lyricism, language is restrained.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Summary
Girl, you want to marry? The same question, Put all the women in "Pride and Prejudice" into reality, which one would you want to marry?
When I first entered the university, I stayed in the student union for a while, and then I slowly quit because of my freedom and laziness.
One day, a classmate from another department asked a MM who worked with me in the student union about my situation. Well, that MM paused, she was a very smart girl.
Smart, these two words are emphasized, I understand what she means, and it is used in a derogatory sense.
At that time, I formed doubt, about what kind of intelligence is suitable for women, and what kind of intelligence will be resisted and attacked.
Lizzy's intelligence lies in her strong self-awareness, she clearly knows what she likes, what she hates, what to do, and what not to do. So, she is graceful in the right places and witty in the inappropriate.
I watched the BBC TV series 3 times back then, and there are two favorite scenes: one is when she walked a long way to Mr. Binglai's manor to visit her sick sister, and she met a big dog near the place.
Have fun and play with it. At that time, Mr. Darcy happened to be standing by the window to see this scene, and he couldn't leave his eyes for a long time. Her spontaneity and self-indulgence were recognized by Mr. Darcy, who clearly admired her in her own way.
In another scene, when Miss Darcy was playing the piano, Miss Binglai mentioned William in order to satirize Lizzy. Miss Darcy was nervous, and the piano stopped abruptly. Even Mr. Darcy couldn't help but change his face.
At this time, Lizzy quickly walked over and apologized with a smile. She said that I forgot to turn in the piano score for you, so you couldn't play it. Her tone was natural and her attitude was decent.
On the one hand, the panic of the stable Miss Darcy, on the other hand, Addressed Mr. Darcy's concerns. The change in Darcy's expression at that moment is worth recalling. He looked at Lizzy's eyes, full of admiration, and then immediately, unparalleled love.
Generous and decent, witty and helpful, a woman who gives help in the snow will make a man grateful, but a woman who is the icing on the cake is a man's biggest dream.
There is no distinction between them, the key lies in their own inner needs, such as drinking water, and knowing whether it is cold or warm.
The women who have reached this level in Pride and Prejudice include Lizzy, Jane, and Charlotte.
In contrast, Jane is directly married to the life of her dreams, and Charlotte is married to the life she wants after compromise. And Lizzy is married to a life transformed through hard work.
And there is another group like Lydia, she is beautiful and ignorant, and it is only a matter of luck whether or not to marry well, but this is not up to us to judge, because, for an individual with one lever and two gears in his head, she is very interested in Happiness and unhappiness does not have self-awareness. As long as one can satisfy the current life, there is no sense of loss.
This principle applies to all people, so fools are easy to be happy, and wise people are full of pain.
If I were an ordinary man, I would probably choose Charlotte. She is on par with me or a little bit taller than me. She has low desires and is easy to satisfy.
If it is a little higher quality, then I will definitely choose Jane, who is generous and decent, beautiful and pleasing, and can enter the hall from the kitchen.
But if the conditions are good enough that women are rushing, it will be smooth and easy to get at your fingertips. I will definitely choose a Lizzy. Anyway, beautiful women are at your fingertips.
If you don’t find a witty and interesting woman who can match your opponent, you will obviously be sorry for your IQ and taste. More importantly, I am used to being spoiled, and I really need a wicked person to torture me.
It is nothing more than to see who is stronger from the outside to the inside.
But if you don't have that EQ and IQ at all, it's better to take a break and marry Lydia, at least she's simple and easy to coax and doesn't take so much mental exhaustion.
I remember quarreling with my boyfriend in college before, he said angrily, women who can't even coax money are really annoying. I laughed out loud, amused by his splendid realism.
In this long life, what's wrong with being a little complicated after being simple, as long as we have a broader mind and a strong mind, it's not scary to have no bosom friend, I'm just afraid, of self-hypnosis and the future.
Recognize the situation clearly and don't make fantasies. If a person tells you that you are too smart and you can't marry him, believe him, he is really not worthy of you, no matter if his purpose is sincerity or excuses.
Book Review of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
What's Good? Reading Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Both statements are to ask where the good is. What I want to talk about here is the novel "Pride and Prejudice" in the early 19th century. It has received more and more attention in recent years.
Readers who love her should study the goodness of her works; those who cannot appreciate her often ask her what is good about her works.
Many people know about Pride and Prejudice in our country. This article is to borrow a Western novel that domestic readers are more familiar with and explore some methods. What's good in trying to taste or identify a novel.
There is always a story to tell in a novel, even if it's a story with no beginning or end. Stories are always made up of authors.
How to fabricate—such as what subject matter to choose, from what angle to write, what to rewrite, what thoughts and feelings to express, how to deal with the subject matter, that is, how to set up, how to shape characters, etc., can only be understood from the entire novel.
You can't figure it out from a story alone. The story is again expressed in words. The technique of expression also only depends on the text itself, and cannot be sought from the story.
To fully understand a novel, it is necessary to analyze the above aspects one by one. There is always a story in a novel.
When and where someone does (or doesn't) what does (or doesn't) - the characters, the setting, and the plot make up the story. The story is the skeleton or the most basic element of a novel, and it is also the "greatest common divisor" shared by all novels.
If the plot of the story is attractive and the characters are moving, it can grab the reader's interest, grab their hearts, and make them unable to let go and leave.
Anxious to know how things will develop and how the characters will end. Many people read a novel just to read a story—or, just read a story.
The story of Pride and Prejudice tells the love and marriage of several daughters of a squire's family in a township in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
It mainly talks about how the second daughter Elizabeth, because of the arrogance of the young gentleman Darcy, has a deep prejudice against him, and how she dispelled her prejudice later, fell in love with Darcy, and became dependent.
The story is unremarkable, without the soul-stirring, soul-stirring scenes. The plot is nothing more than trivial, such as the communication between neighbors, tea, banquets, dances, driving to browse scenic spots, staying in London, visiting relatives and friends, etc., are the daily life of the leisure class in the township. There are no heroes or role models to be admired.
They are all people you see every day. Some are smart and elegant, and some are stupid and vulgar. They are nothing but leisure-class gentlemen, ladies, and ladies.
An African young man read this book and thought to himself, "What do these British ladies have to do with me?"
We can't help but ask, what value can the romance novels of the foreign bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century have in our day? Woolen cloth?
But we cannot judge a novel by its story alone.
The second,
the story is just the main plot that can be summarized in the novel, and the story does not tell the author's mind.
But the author cannot reflect reality purely objectively, nor can he completely shield himself in the work. His thoughts are like overtones, revealed everywhere in his works.
What kind of story to write, and what theme to choose. Pride and Prejudice is a novel, not a romance. The two are different types.
Realistic novels inherit real records such as letters, diaries, biographies, and history, and focus on realism. Legendary novels follow epic and medieval legends and write amazing things.
There are all kinds of things in the world, and as long as they are reasonable and reasonable, they don't have to be commonplace. W. Scott wrote legendary novels, and Austen wrote realistic novels.
Austen himself said that he could not write a legendary novel, unless his life was at stake, as a last resort; he was afraid that he would burst into laughter if he could not finish a chapter. why? In another novel, Northanger Abbey, she deliberately parodies the tone of a gothic romance.
Her letters instructing her niece to write repeatedly emphasized that the characters should be written naturally. To avoid imagination distortion, resulting in false impressions. She likes to set the background of the story in a town with three or four big families.
Austin is not a closed old girl. She reads books and newspapers and is familiar with famous contemporary works. She has many relatives and contacts with people who have seen the world.
She is not ignorant of world events and urban life. But her novels, one after another, are almost all based on villages and towns with three or four big families. It seems she shares the same opinion as Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice.
People in villages and towns can be observed and studied as well as people in big cities; whether they are simple or deeply urban, they are all interesting subjects, especially the latter, although the place is small and there are not many people, the appearance of each person changes.
There are many, many unobservable aspects that will emerge in an endless stream. Austen apparently deliberately chose mundane subjects to create realistic novels.
Three,
Pride and Prejudice are often referred to as romance novels. In fact, what is rewritten in the novel is that young men and women choose spouses and get married and start a family. From Austen's novels, we can see that she never divorced from marriage and wrote love.
If a man falls in love with a woman without the qualifications for marriage, or without the sincerity of marriage, it is irresponsible or toys with a woman.
If a woman reveals her love without seeing the sincerity of the man's proposal, it is disrespectful and even disrespectful. Love is for marriage, marriage is for starting a family, and the social status and economic base of both parties must be considered.
The portal is not quite accommodating, but the economic base cannot be ignored. Because the children of the squire's family cannot support themselves, the occupations they can do are very limited.
The eldest son inherits the family property, and the other sons become priests, military officers, and lawyers, and their status is lower than that of the eldest son. The old girl has no property of her own, and has to rely on others; if she becomes a female teacher, she falls on the fringes of her class or accidentally on the fringes.
In a good marriage, every family struggled to climb up, lest they fall. This is an important bald head in the competition for survival. The men and women themselves and the old and young of the two families are all doing their best.
Although there are only three or four big families in the township, the contradictions are complicated enough, the competition is fierce enough, and the world and human feelings are also really good-looking. "Pride and Prejudice" is from the perspective of love and marriage to describe this world's situation.
Austin considered marriage without love to be unbearable distress. Many of the grudges in her novels were caused by ignorance before marriage. Marriage cannot ignore the character of the other party, including appearance, behavior, speech, and inner moral character.
Although the appearance is obvious, it also requires the other party's vision. Only by appearance can we distinguish the quality of others. As for talent and character, it depends on how he behaves as a person.
This has to be judged from many aspects. One incident is not enough, and we have to look at our daily behavior in our daily life. It is not easy to know people, and it is not easy to know oneself.
In the fierce competition for survival, misunderstandings, and disputes between people are even more inevitable. "Pride and Prejudice" describes how the heroine's prejudice is created and how to eliminate it.
It is from the superficial surface of the characters and gradually penetrates into their hearts, figuring out their character, cultivation, and various psychological states.
It can be said that the novels written by Austen are all from the perspective of love and marriage, write about the world's human feelings, and write the characters' hearts that express the world's human feelings.
Four,
"Pride and Prejudice" opens with the first sentence, "It is generally accepted that a bachelor with a wealth of property wants to marry a wife." He continued: "This truth is deeply rooted in people's hearts.
Once such a person comes to the place, the neighbors ignore his own wishes and regard him as the husband that one of his daughters deserves."
Austin looked coldly Looking at the world, point out these two sentences, and then lead to a group of ridiculous characters and a series of ridiculous plots. Critics often compare Austen's novels to the comedy of Manners, because they are comedy novels.
Although a comedy, according to Aristotle, is only for entertainment, Plato thinks it can be used for reference and has educational significance. This is the same opinion as Cicero said that "comedy should be the mirror of life...".
Cervantes in Spain and Shakespeare in England have all been quoted; Fielding also used it in his self-proclaimed "comedy novels" to illustrate the function of his novels.
These words have become commonplace in comedy. The so-called "mirror" is nothing more than a reflection of life. It is generally believed that mirrors show ugly people and scandals.
But what do Pride and Prejudice warn against? To the stupid Pastor Collins, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Catherine, etc., can a few touches of sarcasm, a few touches of sarcasm, and even a few lashes, be enough to remove the blunt roots of stupidity?
Austin doesn't seem to have this intention. What she scoffed at was not the priest, the squire's wife, or the noble lady, not the absurdity caused by the artificial system or bad habits, but these stupid people. She didn't just pick up a few idiots to make fun of. The wise man did not escape her ridicule.
Elizabeth, such a beautiful girl, was ashamed of her lack of self-knowledge at the end of the story. Darcy, who is so arrogant and arrogant, is afraid of making jokes, and his words and every motivation are as appropriate, but he also realizes his inappropriate behavior at the end of the story.
Austin has no hatred, no anger, or contempt for the characters she makes fun of. She puts herself in their shoes, understands them fully, and is completely considerate. Her laughter is not a slap in the face, nor a lashing out, nor a tearful sympathy, but an obedient comprehension. Sometimes she looks at the readers in the opposite direction and smiles knowingly. Try an example.
In Chapter Eleven, Elizabeth mocks Darcy, saying he can't make fun of him. Darcy argues that if a person pursues jokes blindly, then even the wisest and best people-even their wisest and best behaviors can be said to be jokes.
Elizabeth said: "Of course, there are people like that, and I hope I'm not that kind of person.
I believe, sensible, and good, I never make fun of; stupid, ridiculous, wayward, unreasonable, and honestly, I find it amusing, as long as you allow me to laugh, I laugh when I see it. However, this kind of thing is probably what you don’t have.
For example, vanity and pride."
"Yes, vanity is indeed a problem; pride, a really smart person will have his own way."
Elizabeth turned her face away and smirked.
Elizabeth mocked Darcy face to face, caught his pride and vanity on the spot, and laughed on the spot. But attentive readers will see that the author is also smiling.
Isn't Elizabeth's prejudice against Darcy precisely because Darcy frustrates her vanity? She made fun of D'Arcy's self-satisfaction, wasn't she just showing pride and ignorance?
Readers appreciate the author's laughter, which is what George Meredith called "rational laughter that comes out of the head."
Laughter contains the other side of being serious and not smiling. Lewis (CS Lewis) pointed out in his essay "A Brief Talk on Jane Austen" that adherence to principles and seriousness is the essence of Austen's art.
I have a beautiful and reasonable standard in my heart, and when I see something ugly and unreasonable, I can't help laughing in comparison.
Without such a rule in mind, you cannot see the contrast between beauty and ugliness, reasonable and unreasonable at a glance. Austin often writes the other side of not smiling behind the smile.
For example, the stupid Collins in "Pride and Prejudice" who proposed to Elizabeth was a big joke; he was rejected, turned around, and proposed to Elizabeth's best friend.
Another big joke. Mrs. Bennett thought that the rich young master Bin Lei had taken a fancy to her eldest daughter, Ji Ying, and was complacent and boasted everywhere; This is another joke. Elizabeth was disappointed that her friend Charlotte would marry such a servile fool as Collins.
She heard a word from one of Darcy's cousins and concluded that Bin Lei had listened to Darcy's words and thought her family was poor, so she dissuaded her willingness to propose to her sister Jiying.
These two things, she said angrily when talking with Jiying: "I don't really like many people, and I am valueless; the more experiences I have, the more dissatisfied I am with this world. People's characters are uncertain, and their appearances look different.
He has a good character, he is quite intelligent, and he is not very reliable; I have always thought so, and now I feel better and better." Jiying advised her not to complain so much, and ruined her pleasant mood; everyone's situation is different, and their temperament is different; Charlotte There are many sisters in the special family.
She is a prudent person. In terms of property, this marriage is a good thing. Maybe she also has some respect for Collins.
Elizabeth thought it was impossible unless Charlotte was a muddle. She does not believe that selfishness is prudence and that blindly embarking on a dangerous path is the guarantee of happiness.
Elizabeth said that men should be disciplined and not dump women casually. Although Bin Lei did not have bad intentions, even though he did not mean to do bad things or embarrass people, he would also do wrong things and be sorry. Without thinking, ignoring other people's feelings, and not making up their minds, they did bad things again.
The two sisters have their own opinions. According to the following, the principle of the sister is good, and the tolerance of the sister is also correct. From this kind of serious writing, we can see Austin's common sense that distinguishes right from wrong and understands human feelings.
She loved to read Dr. Samuel Johnson, whom she admired so much, and called him "My Lovely Dr. Johnson." She was heavily influenced by Johnson, inheriting his practical wisdom, and critics refer to her as Dr. Johnson's spiritual daughter.
Austen has no illusions about the world in which she lives, but she would rather face reality than the fiction that glorifies reality in fiction. She is cheerful and humorous by nature.
When she sees the foolishness of the world and the unevenness of the world, she does not cry with grief and indignation, but she understands and tolerates it and laughs.
Walpole (Horace Walpole) has a famous saying that is often quoted: "This world, understood with reason, is a comedy and understood with emotion, it is a tragedy." Austin understood with reason, the world See it as a comedy.
To understand the world in this way is not to laugh off unpleasant things. Laughter is not attunement; laughter is not attunement. The standard of right and wrong in the heart is firm and unswerving, and it is unwilling to respond to expediency. When it is collided and is rubbed by the external reality, it will emit a lightning-like laugh.
Austen does not teach people directly but only uses the spotlight of her wisdom to illuminate the ridiculous people and ridiculous things in the world and let the smart readers explore for themselves what is not ridiculous, what is good and wise. Meredith thinks comedic laughter should be thought-provoking. The laughter that Austin inspires is thought-provoking.
Five,
"Pride and Prejudice" also has a strict layout like a play. There are no unnecessary characters in the novel (irrelevant characters are indispensable foils, and also necessary in this sense), and there are no unnecessary plots. Things are tied together. are all causally related?
Readers are not only anxious to know what will happen in the future, but also can't help but think about the past, explore the reasons, and guess about the future. If the novel has a layout, it should be refined and rounded without being scattered.
But real life doesn't have a plan. The layout of the novel limits the free movement of the characters and the natural development of things.
Under the guidance of his own worldview, the author cannot help but rely on subjective arrangements. Put characters into a certain fate; even if it seems reasonable, it will always show traces of artificiality - the author is pretending to be the God who created the world.
But the layout of Pride and Prejudice is very natural, and the reader does not feel that the series of causally related plots is creating a predetermined ending, which sees the natural actions of the characters.
Of course, the author intervened to arrange the foregone conclusion, but the arrangement was light and without a trace. For example, the stupid pastor Collins in the story is not only a funny character but also the key to the layout.
His benefactor was Darcy's aunt Lady Catherine, and he married Elizabeth's friend Charlotte. It was only natural for Elizabeth's visiting friends to meet Darcy again.
Another key figure in the layout is Elizabeth's aunt, who lived in a town near Darcy's estate when she was unmarried. It was also natural for her to revisit the old place and bring Elizabeth to the Darcy family's manor for sightseeing. These personal relationships do not seem to exist naturally due to the author's arrangement.
The turning point of the general layout is often the discovery of a long-hidden secret; only a little misunderstanding is found here, and it also makes the story seem natural, without man-made arrangements.
All of Austen's novels, including her unpublished early work "Lady Susan," have layouts that show no trace of the author's planning. Is it because the daily routines in small towns are easy to arrange? It's intriguing.
Austen, like a detective writer, limits his story to a small area and a small number of people. Everyone's words and deeds and any fluctuations in their hearts. Everything is well planned, and the details are not accidental.
Austin directs her niece to write, demanding that everything be accounted for, apparently her own method of creation.
This distills the whole story in a vigilant and lively way, and everything has meaning. Small expressions and casual conversations deepen the understanding of characters and things.
Austin's "Emma" can also be said to be a detective novel, says RW Chapman, who studies Austin. In fact, in Austen's novels, the elements of detective or reasoning are very heavy.
For example, in "Pride and Prejudice" Darcy meets Wickham, the son of his accountant, Darcy's face is flushed, but Wickham's face is ashen. why? Why did Bing Lei suddenly never return?
Wickham eloped with Lydia, and already cheated on the girl, why would he be willing to marry her? Elizabeth and Jane often, like Sherlock Holmes and Watson, worked together to find out the intentions of this person and that person, the bottom line of this thing and that.
Because in social activities, no one is willing to "lightly throw a piece of the heart", and they only say "three-point talk"; the three-point talk may be bragging or pretending to be false.
To know the truth and sincerity, you need to grope and speculate - groping speculation is that The human heart is not looking for a murderer, but a partner who can love for life. Although the story is bland, every detail is concerning.
Austin only said that she liked to set the story in a town with three or four big families, but gave no reason. But we can see the effect of placing the background on the township from the works.
Six,
Austen's nephews lost one novel manuscript at a time. Austen joked that she didn't steal it anyway; the ivory pieces she had meticulously sketched were only two inches wide, and her nephew's swipe of words wouldn't work well on small ivory pieces.
Some critics like to quote this quote, saying that Austin's characters are well-drawn, but the pictures are only two inches wide. In fact, the characters written by Austen are the size of ordinary people, not miniature characters on small ivory tablets.
The Grand View Garden in A Dream of Red Mansions is no bigger than the towns in Austin's writings, but we never think the background is narrow because of the small size of the Grand View Garden.
Austen's sentence only emphasized her meticulous description and the critic did not need to die under the sentence, shrinking her town to two inches wide.
Austen's characters are indeed meticulously crafted and exquisite. Creating characters is probably her most interesting and best skill.
All of her works (including unfinished fragments) are about ordinary people, but each one is special, and none of them are repeated; the very unimportant people are also unique and unique, and they are obviously her creations rather than imitations of real people; it is said that her novels The place names are all real, but the characters are all fictional.
A person's experience is limited. Real things are only copied once and repeated a second time.
However, if you use real people as the material, and use the scalp of a certain person and the heel skin of a certain person to make up the characters, you will be inexhaustible and inexhaustible, just like a few glass shards in a kaleidoscope, you can imagine endless new patterns. Fiction readers like to confuse characters with authors.
When the author creates characters, of course, he will endow his spiritual sons and daughters with his own spiritual outlook.
But no child can represent the parent. Elizabeth in "Pride and Prejudice" has similarities with the author. The characters in the author's other novels also represent other aspects of her.
She put herself in the shoes of the characters she created, knew them intimately, and knew them more deeply and thoroughly than those characters herself.
For example, in chapter 59 of Pride and Prejudice, Jean asks Elizabeth when she began to fall in love with Darcy.
Elizabeth could not speak for herself. But attentive readers can see it very clearly because the author has written step by step about how her mood changed gradually.
Elizabeth thinks Darcy is arrogant. She listened to Wickham's words, believing that Darcy had wronged his father, and asked him to take care of Wickham.
She then concluded that Darcy had ruined her sister's marriage. Darcy couldn't help proposing to her, and a marriage proposal turned into a quarrel.
This is the turning point. Darcy wrote a letter to confess, Elizabeth read the letter repeatedly, and the misunderstanding was cleared up, and she also saw that there was indeed something despised in her own home.
It made her ashamed. Wanting to propose to Daxi involuntarily, I feel a little confident about him.
She didn't want to think about this unpleasant thing. When she heard the servant's praise of Darcy, she couldn't help but feel ashamed that she didn't know people well, and she also apologized for blaming Darcy.
She stared at Darcy's portrait with admiration in her heart. Darcy, forgetting his old suspicions, treated her with kindness, which was grateful and ashamed and regretful.
After Lydia eloped, she felt that she had no hope of receiving Darcy's favor and was secretly sad, which confirmed her love for Darcy.
People who study novels often say that Austen's characters are three-dimensional, not flat; even if only one plane appears at first, it will develop into a three-dimensional later. why?
Probably because the characters are already three-dimensional characters in the author's mind, although readers only see one side, they will see other aspects when they have the chance to meet each other.
These three-dimensional figures can express very complex inner feelings. Some critics say that Austen's writing of morality is more in-depth, and the writing of psychology is only a glimpse; some say that her writing is very delicate and can be a precursor to Henry James (Henry James) and Proust (Marcel Proust). These two statements should be read together.
Austen only writes about the superficial, but the superficial expresses the heart - a very complicated heart and expresses it very delicately. The person she wrote about is not an ordinary person, but "that one".
According to Western traditional theory, comedy does not write about individuals; because comedy satirizes the weaknesses and shortcomings common to ordinary people, and does not attack individual people.
The characters in British seventeenth-century comedy are conceptualized, such as the suspicious husband, the jealous wife, the rich miser, the bragging coward, etc.
The characters in the plays of the great seventeenth-century French dramatist Molière, such as Tartuffe and Alceste, are still somewhat conceptual.
There can be conceptualized roles in dramas because actors are flesh and blood people, and concepts get their bodies through actors. Not in the novel. Formula concepts cannot be turned into concrete people.
Weaknesses and cowardice, laziness, ignorance, selfishness, etc. shared by people are just abstract nouns, and they are different in specific characters.
The poor are the same, and the rich are the advantages. The same is true of the poor, and their performance is also different.
Therefore, abstract concepts cannot represent anyone, but concepts are generalized from concrete people. The more specific, special, and typical a character is, the more we can generalize from him the roots he shares with others.
The above mentioned an African boy who read "Pride and Prejudice" and felt that the characters in the book had nothing to do with him.
But then he discovered that in the small town where he lived, there was a woman exactly like Mrs. Kesselring in the book as well as all kinds of men, women, and children described in the novels.
Austen did not copy real people but created typical ordinary people. She made fun of not individual real people, but typical ordinary people.
What she makes fun of is not individual real people, but the weaknesses and shortcomings that many people share.
She depicts the world and human conditions, and discovers their common roots in ordinary people; although the background of the story is set in a small town, the world it contains is very broad.
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The above kinds of research, if only analyzing a story is elusive. The author's skill in expressing in words is beyond the story and can only be pursued in words.
Although the novelist claims to be true, the reader knows that the author made it up.
If an author wants to attract readers, he must first ask readers to ignore the fiction for the time being, and that willing suspension of disbelief, to make readers listen to it, must capture their interest at once.
This is of course inseparable from the layout of the story, but the novel relies on the medium of words, and expression skills play an important role.
"Pride and Prejudice" open with a few short dialogues, which suddenly transport the reader into a fictional world; this catches the reader and makes them listen to it.
One critic considered the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice to be the shortest, most witty, and most skilled first chapter in British fiction.
But it is only temporary to hear it; if you want the reader to continue reading, on the one hand, the reader must not be bored, and on the other hand, he must be persuaded. Austin, despite his self-proclaimed fine brushwork, never bothered.
She doesn't write the background in detail, she doesn't use abstract adjectives to describe the appearance of the heart, and she doesn't dig out the human heart and put it on the operating table for detailed dissection.
She uses only dialogue and plot to portray characters. Vivid dialogue and an interesting plot are Austen's meticulous portrayal of his characters.
The characters Austen creates are long-cherished in the mind and are born full-fledged living beings.
As soon as they speak, they can make readers hear their voices, see their people, and see their intentions, because their words are "the voice of the heart", and even nonsense expresses their personality, and writes characters in dialogue. Grandmaster.
Critics put her and Shakespeare together because she can write a rich and complex heart in dialogue.
Austen doesn't make her characters look like characters on the stage or in novels, she avoids stereotypes and strives for the real nature of the characters. So the performance is vivid and captures the interest of the readers.
Austen's novels, with the exception of "Mrs. Susan," in epistolary form, are told by "the omniscient author." She never speaks in the original and straightforward manner but speaks in the order of the layout.
It is possible to not tell what is not described, and for the time being, it will not be compared to what is described, and it will be explained when necessary—that is to say when the reader is eager to understand, then tell him.
This makes readers not only want to know what happened in the future, but also understand what happened in the past, look forward to the future, and think about cause and effect.
The reader is not only a spectator or bystander outside the story, but also involuntarily gets involved in the story.
Austen neither writes dialogue nor narrates things without explanation. For example, a dialogue in which Elizabeth ridiculed Darcy above, and how Elizabeth's feelings for Darcy gradually change, is only understood by the readers themselves and confirmed in the story.
Austen herself says she doesn't like to explain: readers who don't have to think or don't understand, deserve it.
She occasionally makes a few comments to the readers, such as the comments on the Bennets at the end of the first chapter, but no explanations, just comments, like exchanging ideas with readers.
She lets readers know the characters directly by their speech and behavior; listen to what they say, see how they behave, and know their character.
She also allows readers to observe the slightest signs of things, so as to speculate on the bottom of things. Readers are curious by paying attention, while investigative speculation is more concerned and interesting.
Because the author does not explain, the readers seem to know the world personally, experience the world, understand and comprehend, and feel that they have added wisdom.
Therefore, although it is just ordinary people and everyday things, it is also attractive; after reading it, it is also meaningful.
Austen's writing is concise and his words are appropriate. In order to tell the story well, he does not hesitate to modify the works. "Pride and Prejudice" was once a big cut."
Articles go through the ages, and the pros and cons are wise." Although Austin called "Pride and Prejudice" his darling, he thought that the novel was too light-hearted, slightly bleak, and did not have the effect of light and dark contrasting each other.
It's not as serious as Mansmelder Manor, as sarcastic as Emma, and as lingering as Persuasion, but it's a novel that is almost universally loved.
Is a novel "just a novel"? Austen opened his eyes to the novel and pointed out the proper status of the novel in "Northanger Abbey". "The novelist displays the highest wisdom in his work; he uses the most appropriate language to express to the world his most thorough understanding of human beings.
He depicts the various aspects of human nature most skillfully, and his pen shines with wit. and humor." This is the most fitting phrase to praise her own novel. Pride and Prejudice is one such novel.
If a novel is valuable, it will be appreciated by its readers, without relying on the critics' test language.
But if we don’t taste the original work carefully, but only grasp a story and judge according to the frame: writing interestingly is fun, writing about love is love, and the subject matter is trivial and boring, then, “bring it” with one hand and throw it again.
This reminds me of a story I heard in my childhood: the foreign devil ate iron broad beans, ate the shell, spit the beans, shook his head, and said, "The meat is thin and the core is big, what's so good?" Say: "Astringent and tasteless, what's good?"
Muhiuddin Alam is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of GeekBookReviews.com. He serves as a consistent contributor to various websites and publications, including Medium, Quora, Reddit, Linkedin, Substack, Vocal, Flipboard, and Amazon KDP. Alam personally read numerous books and, for the past 10 years, has been providing book recommendations and reviews. Find Me: About Me & Google Knowledge Panel.
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