During the holidays, I attended reading classes with my children and read Pride and Prejudice by the British novelist Jane Austen.

This is an interesting work! This, in the opening sentence of the novel, reveals the clue:

If the article has a "title", then this sentence is the title of the whole book, and all the stories behind it are centered around this sentence. But is this really an accepted truth?

At least in the eyes of the "mothers" represented by the heroine Elizabeth's mother, Mrs. Bennet. For them, finding a valuable bachelor and trying to make it the "legal property" of one of their daughters is the whole of life.

It's nothing strange, it's just human nature. For the Bennett family, this demand is particularly urgent.

As a squire, the Bennett family, with an annual income of more than 2,000 pounds, is a well-off family. However, since there is no son as an heir, according to the "limited inheritance" system implemented by the British government at that time, once Mr. Bennett has a length, his property will fall into the hands of others sooner or later.

In the novel, this man is Collins, a distant relative of the Bennett family, and an out-and-out philistine.

Therefore, how to make all five daughters marry into good families is Mrs. Bennet's top priority, and of course, it is also Mr. Bay's top priority. Although he was surprisingly cold in front of his wife and daughters, he actually visited the upcoming "bachelor" privately for the first time and won the first chance for his daughters.

At the beginning of the novel, Netherfield attracted the attention of the Bennett family and a group of squire families in the town because it welcomed its new owner, Mr. Bingley, a bachelor, because it is said that Mr. Bingley earned 5,000 pounds a year.

A lot of good things happened! What upset Mrs. Bennet most about Mr. Bingley's return visit was: First, Mr. Bingley delayed his visit because he was in town on business, which worried Mrs. Bennet; Then I heard that he would bring 12 ladies to the dance, which made her even more worried. Later, I heard that only six ladies came-Mr. Bingley's five sisters and a cousin. She really thanks God!

In the end, only five people really appeared-Mr. Bingley, his two sisters, a brother-in-law and a young man. Attention, the real first hero is coming!

It's Mr Darcy!

Five minutes before entering the stadium, he attracted the audience's attention: he is tall and handsome, and he is personable. It is said that his annual salary is 10 thousand pounds!

But five minutes later, he attracted everyone's disgust: conceited, arrogant and hard to please!

In addition, what he said to Mr. Bingley, who was already on the phone with Jane, the eldest brother of Bennet's family, made Elizabeth, the first woman (the second talented woman of Bennet's family), overhear a sentence:

"She is ok, but not beautiful enough to touch my heart. At the moment, I'm not in the mood to flatter those who are left out by others ... "

It's not that enemies don't get together The love between "Mr. Pride" and "Miss Prejudice" began in this way. ...

Here is another episode: Collins' proposal to Bennett's eldest brother Jane and his second son Elizabeth was rejected, and he proposed to Elizabeth's best friend Charlotte instead, and they got married by lightning!

Elizabeth's rejection of Collins is a wonderful chapter in this novel. Elizabeth's high academic qualifications and level of rejection are really a bit like casting pearls before swine for this kind of self-deception "stupidity". To put it bluntly: he doesn't understand!

Mrs. Bennett and her husband's attitude on this issue is also boring: how can there be such a big gap between two people under the same roof? ?

Mrs. Bennet shouted, "If my daughter insists on not marrying Collins, I will never see her again."

Mr. Bennet always seems to stay in the study and has a critical eye when helping his daughter find a man. For his favorite daughter, he said such a classic quotation:

"Elizabeth, you are faced with an unfortunate choice. Starting today, you will become a stranger with one of your parents. If you don't marry Mr. Collins, your mother will never see you again; If you marry Mr. Collins, I will never see you again. "

The following story twists and turns.

First of all, Mr. Bingley's sister Caroline stood between them as the first "light bulb". However, compared with the versatile and well-read Elizabeth, she is too superficial!

Mr Darcy can't be insensitive!

Once, he pointed out that his "goddess" was like this: proficient in music, dance, painting, singing and modern language; Instrument gait, pronunciation and intonation, and speech expression all have a characteristic; Have real talent and practical learning, like reading, and constantly increase their intelligence. ...

If it isn't Elizabeth!

However, Elizabeth, who is biased against Darcy's arrogance, immediately replied, "Even if there is only one man left in the world, I will not marry you!" "

Then another "light bulb" appeared.

Wickham, a young officer, spoke ill of Darcy to Elizabeth, which made her more prejudiced and disgusted with Darcy.

In fact, right and wrong is right and wrong! Wickham is a gambling and extravagant guy who once tried to lure Darcy's sister to elope with him.

Then, there are a series of twists and turns and coincidences.

Mr. Darcy's proposal to Elizabeth was rejected, so he learned from a bitter experience, put down his "pride" and wrote a long letter to express his feelings. Then, Elizabeth knew the truth, and the prejudice in her heart began to disappear.

Later, her little sister Lydia eloped with Wickham, who owed a lot of gambling debts. In the end, Mr. Darcy came forward to solve the crisis and held a decent wedding for them.

As a result, the relationship between them reversed, and a pair of lovers who were misunderstood because of arrogance and prejudice finally got married.

2. A writer comparable to Shakespeare

Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's famous work, which was first published in181365438+1October 30th. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the novel's publication, the Bank of England printed her head on the new edition of 10 banknotes to pay tribute to Austin's immortal contribution!

In fact, the new round of global "Austin fever" began at 1995, and the trigger point was the 6-episode TV series "Pride and Prejudice" filmed by BBC. This drama, which was launched on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the original novel, caused a great sensation in Britain and triggered a series of adaptations of Austen's works.

The film Sense and Sensibility directed by Ang Lee, two versions of Emma, the film Persuasion, etc ... have been remake one after another, and Austin's own experience has been adapted into film and television for many times.

It is hard to imagine that as Jane Austen's famous work, Pride and Prejudice was written in 1797, when she was only 22 years old, and it took only 10 months to write this work.

It is worth noting that Austin had just experienced an unforgettable first love before writing this novel. She fell in love with a poor and excellent young lawyer, but was finally separated by the opinions of both families.

Since then, Austin has never been married and devoted his life to literary creation. She died of illness when she was 42. In her short life, she left six novels, such as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma.

Austin lived in the countryside with strong feudal forces all his life. Because of her rich family and small life circle, her works are largely a projection of her own life. However, this does not prevent her from becoming a great figure in the history of English literature.

From the end of Austin 18 to the beginning of 19, vulgar and boring "sentimental novels" and "gothic novels" flooded the literary world. However, her novels are like a clear stream, showing the daily life and rural scenery of the British rural middle class that was not impacted by the capitalist industrial revolution at that time.

In this sense, she is a loner not only in life, but also in literature.

Austin's creation swept away the vulgar atmosphere in novel creation at that time, and played a connecting role in the history of English novel development, and was hailed as a writer who could be on an equal footing with Shakespeare.

Mao Mu, a famous British novelist, spoke highly of this novel and thought it would be "a classic forever":

"Let a work become a classic, not the praise of critics, not the exposition and research of professors, not the use of school textbooks, but the pleasure and enlightenment of many readers from generation to generation when reading this work. Personally, I think Pride and Prejudice is the most satisfying work of all novels. "

3. What have we learned from Austin?

First, learn her skills in writing novels and telling stories.

Jane Austen is really a master storyteller! Compared with the mature and sophisticated brushwork in the novel, the English writer Scott's evaluation is accurate and in place:

"Austin is really talented in describing people's daily lives, inner feelings and many complicated trivial matters. This gift is so precious that I have never seen it. She can portray ordinary things and people vividly with meticulous brushstrokes. "

Second, learn from her life wisdom of dealing with emotions rationally.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was originally named First Impression. It seems that the author thinks that "first impression" is unreliable, and prejudice is more terrible than ignorance!

Her other novel was directly named Sense and Sensibility. In this regard, the British scholar H. walpole has a famous saying: "The world is a comedy that is understood with reason and a tragedy that is understood with emotion."

Obviously, it is through understanding the world with reason that Austin created this sitcom about human feelings. "This comedy is like a mirror of life, showing the ignorance, blindness and conceit of this world."

In Pride and Prejudice, a * * depicts four marriages between Elizabeth and Darcy, her sisters Jane and Bentley, her sisters Lydia and Wickham, and her best friends Charlotte and Collins. Some are based on interests, some are based on lust, and some are based on love that has been tested by reason. The comparative analysis shows the author's "good or bad" standard and value orientation.

Third, on the basis of a thorough understanding of human nature, learn Austin's perfect language skills.

Austin's works represent the traditional higher education and cultural accomplishment of English gentlemen. The dialogue between characters in her works is very mysterious, completely different from the current network language, and full of "language violence". Instead, he is good at using the differences in motivation and understanding among speakers, listeners and readers to create a variety of intonations, which are vivid, personalized, rich in meaning and intriguing.

In other words, if we don't have the time to "listen", we may not really understand Austin's implication and implication. So, what is a classic? After 200 years, it is still memorable and memorable. This is a classic that can stand the polishing of time!

In her own novel northanger abbey, Austin praised the "new novel", which we might as well regard as her husband's own way:

"In these works, the power of wisdom has been fully demonstrated, so the most thorough understanding of human nature, the appropriate description of its various postures, and the wit and humor everywhere are all displayed in the most exquisite language."

Well, let's experience Austin's wit and humor through some "most exquisite language" in Pride and Prejudice:

Arrogance makes others not love me, and prejudice makes me not love others.

Love is the dawn after abandoning pride and prejudice.

Isn't it the true meaning of love to ignore others for one person?

Burying feelings too deeply is sometimes a bad thing. If a woman hides her feelings for the man she loves, she may lose the chance to get him.

Vanity and pride are two very different things: although these two words are always confused. One can be proud, but not vain. Pride is mostly nothing more than our evaluation of ourselves, while vanity involves how we want others to look at us.

I don't know who discovered the power of poetry to drive away love; I think poetry is the food of love, the food of beautiful and faithful love; But if it is ambiguous love, a bad sonnet will ruin it.