The Free Readers discussion

Austenmania is a real thing. I haven't caught it myself, but I do see the appeal of her style. Does your reading of the book live up to all the movies, plays, adaptations, and general hype that this book has received? And if you were to rate it's romantic-ness on a 1-10 scale, where would it fall?

Well after seeing many different film versions of this book, I finally read it and I thought it was a great book. The way the two main characters fall in love is very endearing. I am prideful myself, and often prejudiced, so I can relate! There's just enough of a plot (will the girls get married? how will the surprise elopement get patched up?) to keep things going.

Austen's style is very minimal, and I think a lot of her subtlety would have been lost on me had I not seen film versions of it beforehand. It may also have been more difficult to follow; the social mores of the time were definitely different from today. A charming and witty book.

But how romantic is it really? I think that fact that they don't like each other and then get together adds to the heat. But that minimal style of Jane Austen's is not conducive to a strong passionate romance. Romantic-ness rating: a 5.5 out of 10