Our February CC Book Club Selection is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Come on, get that look off your face. You know you want to. How many years has it been? It’s time to reacquaint yourself with Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, et al. For those who have never read the book, I promise you will be excessively diverted.
What a difference 200 years makes. Cautionary tale or feminist treatise? You decide. Discussion begins February 1st. Please join us!
One of my favorites! For those who have read it countless times, there is a modern young adult version called “The Season” that isn’t bad (although nowhere near as good either).
I practically have the book memorized! I concentrate on different characters or issue as I reread.
Yesterday my daughter was in a heated debate about which adaptation is better - BBC or the Kiera Knightly one. It was interesting how many other girls were raised with the BBC one.
@“Snowball City” The BBC version has Colin Firth. 
Colin Firth, Matthew Mcfadyen…I’ll take Darcy pretty much any way I can get him.
@“Snowball City” I don’t know where your daughter stands on this, but IMO, Mrs. Bennet in the Keira Knightley version is much more bearable than the over-the-top Mrs. B. in the BBC production. Interesting how differently two actors can deliver the same lines.
Ha! You caught me! I totally have “that look” on my face! Bad flashbacks to HS Honors English, which I loathed all four years!
Nevertheless, I will consider re-reading it (on audio)!
While we wait for February, a companion book suggestion. For those who’ve read Pride and Prejudice a few times (or a few hundred times), try the novel Longbourn by Jo Baker. It’s a look at what the servants were doing while Lizzie and Jane were sitting the parlor talking to gentleman visitors or going off to balls. In the same way the servants are in the background in Pride and Prejudice-- mentioned, but not characters in the plot-- the Bennetts are in the background in Longbourn.
^ Thanks, great idea!
@Midwest67, join us! You can represent the Mark Twain perspective (the quote I chose not to use in my first post):
May I point out that even he read it more than once. Or at least tried to. 
I reread it only last month for the umpteenth time. Marvelous book! My mother loved it, too.
@Mary13 At risk of jumping the gun, Mrs Bennet was meant to be a comedic satire of the marriage crazed mamas.
BBC all the way. To many historical inaccuracies in the film one. The Bennets would never have had a pig walk through the house! I sputtered through the film!
I would take the film any day over the Longbourne novel.
This book choice is already indicating a spirited discussion! Excellent!
^ ^ Yes, the BBC version will always be my favorite, probably because I watched it at a point in my life when I was not yet skeptical about love. :x
I find that I can enjoy different film versions and book spin-offs without them tainting how I feel about the original novel. it’s always fun–albeit sometimes frustrating and silly–to see how different mediums play around with the work.
You’re right, though, we’re probably jumping the gun! Looking forward to February.
For those who are interested, this book is enjoyable and informative:
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England, by Daniel Pool
I grew up on the Greer Garson/Lawrence Olivier version of Darcy. I hadn’t realized until looking it up now that Aldous Huxley wrote the sceenplay.
Those costumes in the Greer Garson/Lawrence Olivier Pride and Prejudice, though. Jane and Lizzy Visit Tara.
@mathmom, if I recall, the Garson-Olivier version used a Victorian wardrobe and setting. So much for historical accuracy! Maybe Greer Garson didn’t want to wear an empire waist gown. Nonetheless, I remember watching and enjoying it in my pre-picky days.
I wouldn’t call those enormous hoop skirts Victorian. I’d say they were antebellum.
According to IMBD, the studio thought Regency era dresses were too simple for public taste so decided to go Victorian. Also they wanted to save money by making over wardrobe from GWTW. So you’re both right!
I love the BBC version. Also loved the leads in the 1940 version but thought both it and the Keira Knightly versions differed too far from the book. Especially the latter - it’s one of the movies where I start yelling at the screen.