Pride and Prejudice

Name: Pride and Prejudice
ISBN: 9787531729662

Jane Austen / Li Zhi / 杨晶Apr 2016

4.3

Word count: 65K words
Chapters: 23
ISBN: 9787531729662

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Summary

Taking everyday life as its material, the novel vividly reflects the life and manners of English country towns in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a society then conservative and closed. The picture of ordinary domestic life serves as the ground against which questions of love and marriage are worked out, and the author conveys her own views on marriage through the daily choices and social pressures her characters face. In doing so she stresses the influence of economic interest and of considerations of family rank on love and marriage.

Editor's review

This novel turns courtship into a precise social observation: balls, family dinners, visits, and small talk form the stage, while characters' judgments are repeatedly overturned within a few sentences. Austen's sharpness lies not in how earth-shattering the plot is but in the irony in the dialogue and the narrator's restraint—she lets readers follow prejudice first, then dismantles it with their own hands. Elizabeth and Darcy's mutual misreading is both a collision of temperaments and a contest of class, property, and breeding in the marriage market; it reads briskly but lingers with a rather cold aftertaste. This edition suits rereading: first-time readers can enjoy the wit and emotional turns, while those familiar with the story can note the comic function of secondary characters and how the author uses one small social scene after another to advance character growth. Suitable for commuting, bedtime, or book clubs, especially for readers willing to discern the ways of the world within a light narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers who enjoy British humor and clever dialogue and prefer courtship themes
Readers who want to understand nineteenth-century English country-gentry life through fiction
Working readers who need to gain observations on human relations from a light story
Teachers and book-club members preparing to lead reading of classics or organize group reading

Not a good fit for

Readers who expect strong plot conflict and fast-paced narrative
Readers who lack patience for extensive character dialogue and social detail
Readers who want only a pure love story and do not care about social satire

Reading tips

Read in chapter order, and jot down kinship and property relationships where characters are dense
On rereading, focus on the dialogue and note where speakers contradict themselves
Compare with film and television adaptations to see which secondary character lines were cut
After reading, write a short review sorting out changes in your judgment of the main characters

版权信息
前言
名师导读
推荐序
初识彬格莱先生
尼日斐花园的舞会
卢卡斯小姐的恋爱观
尼日斐花园的访客
班纳特家里的来客
柯林斯先生的婚事
伊莉莎白的作客生涯
与达西先生的重逢
达西先生的求婚
达西先生的书信
伊莉莎白和达西偶然相遇
达西先生的热情招待
丽迪雅和韦翰的婚事
丽迪雅和韦翰夫妇回到浪博恩
嘉尔纳太太的回信
重新造访浪博恩
班家俩姐妹的婚事
阅读反馈
编者寄语

FAQ

Do I need to know British history before reading this novel?

Not necessarily. The story centers on a village social circle, and character relationships and property arrangements are explained as the plot unfolds; if you want to read more deeply, you can look up the inheritance system and the country-gentry class of the time to help understand why marriage involved the whole family.

Is the romance between Elizabeth and Darcy the focus?

It is one of the main threads, but the novel also puts effort into secondary characters and the ensemble: the parents' marriage, the sisters' choices, and the neighbors' social climbing all contrast with the protagonist's judgments. Read as a social comedy, it is more rewarding.

For someone new to Austen, will it be hard to read?

The language is mainly dialogue and the plot advances clearly, so it is usually not hard to enter; the real threshold is remembering the character relationships. It is advisable to keep a character chart while reading; after the first few chapters it becomes smooth.

Is this book suitable for middle school students?

Yes, but guidance is needed. The marriage and economic considerations in the book are rather subtle, and the irony can easily be read as a simple love story; with a teacher or parent leading the reading, discussion will be more thorough.

Comments

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About the author

Jane Austen Author · British · 1775–1817

Jane Austen (1775–1817) was a British novelist, born into the family of a clergyman in Steventon, Hampshire, and she remained unmarried throughout her life. She wrote six novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey. With delicate irony she portrayed the marriages and daily life of the English gentry, and she is regarded as one of the most important writers in the history of the English novel. Her works are commonly classified under foreign literature, inspirational growth, and world classics, and they are widely read among Chinese readers; this library holds 88 editions of her works.

Li Zhi Author · Chinese · 1972

Li Zhi was born in 1972 in Xiangxiang, Hunan. He holds a PhD in philosophy from Peking University and completed postdoctoral research in journalism and communication at Fudan University. A former professor at Communication University of China, he is now a professor and doctoral supervisor at Renmin University of China, focusing on international communication, cultural diplomacy, and international relations. His works include Cultural Diplomacy, International Political Communication, and Introduction to Global Communication Studies, and he has translated about ten books, including Marxism After Marx. The library holds 22 of his works, mainly foreign literature and world classics such as Anne of Green Gables, Gone with the Wind, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, The Secret Garden, Selected Sherlock Holmes Stories, The Good Soldier Švejk, and Dream of the Red Chamber, spanning mystery, social fiction, and classical literature. His academic background and translation practice lend his versions both accuracy and readability, giving him some influence in popularizing classics; public information on his translation style and specific experience is limited.

杨晶 Author

Yang Jing's publicly available information is limited, and details of the author's identity and life are not clearly established in the source materials. Judging from the existing works, Yang Jing is closely associated with the compilation and editing of foreign literary classics, including such major novels as Gone with the Wind, Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre, A Tale of Two Cities, and The Red and the Black, as well as mystery and detective works such as Selected Sherlock Holmes Stories, and essay collections and social satires such as A Pipe Smoker's Notes and The Good Soldier Švejk. The collection contains twenty-one related works, commonly classified under foreign literature, world classics, mystery and detective fiction, essays and miscellaneous writings, social novels, and classical literature. This suggests a focus on presenting foreign literature in forms accessible to Chinese readers, with selections balancing popular readability and literary-historical value.