Hi!! I agree that Pride and Prejudice is overrated and would love to hear more about why you didn't like it much. I thought I was the only one! By the way, I agree with your tags about not feeling invested in Elizabeth and Darcy. I actually preferred Bingley and Jane.
ok ok so basically.
(this is going to be very ramble-y bcause i wanna get all my thoughts out here before my lunch break is over)
Last year I tried reading Sense and Sensibility, because my cousin is really into Jane Austin and we made a deal that if I’d read some Jane Austin books then she’d read The Count of Monte Cristo (which, as many who follow me know, is my favorite non-Shakespeare classic lit book). BUT I hated Sense and Sensibility so much that I quit reading it when I was around halfway through it.
This year we were assigned Pride and Prejudice for english class, and at the beginning I thought it wasn’t too bad (I thought it was kinda good at some points even). But then I realized that the only reason I didn’t hate it was because I kept comparing it to Sense and Sensibility.
As soon as I stopped comparing the two, I was like “huh. This book is actually pretty boring”. but I knew the whole internet is obsessed with it, and even my classmates who hate classic lit were enjoying it, so I was like “well maybe I just haven’t gotten to the good parts yet?” And then I finished the book and was like “wait where are the good parts?”
I don’t like the romance genre, but at least stuff happens in most romance media. What even happened in this book? Name exactly one thing that happened that isn’t people forming opinions on other people and then changing said opinion. They all just go over to each other’s houses and gossip for ten hours. And then go back to their own houses and gossip about the gossip. There was no plot.
Before reading the book, all I knew about it was “girl hates boy. boy turns out to not be that bad after all. girl changes her mind and marries boy. Also boy is very bad at proposing.” So I was like “ok cool so it’s gonna be like Much Ado About Nothing! It‘s like. Enemies to lovers. Right?” BUT NO. Much Ado has an actual plot. Beatrice and Benedict actually have lives and do things other than form opinions on other people based off of local gossip. Actually, pretty much everyone in Much Ado can be praised in thats department. Even Claudio didn’t go off of rumors about Hero or anything- he went off of what he thought he witnessed with his own two eyes.
Basically what I’m saying is that Claudio is superior to every man from Pride and Prejudice.
but that‘s besides the point.