A Hard Beauty

Pride and Prejudice is all about the beauty. Reading a novel that is not only tender and nice to the reader but also slow has been somewhat hard. Austen uses a lot of words to say very little and it is starting to get on my nerves. The reader is given very nice descriptions of each character and is then introduced to a word of slow confusion. Mr. Bingley is described as “good looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy unaffected manners” (6) which an excellent description. It tells people what he is like, his manners, and his appearance. Probably the most important things in the book. Because Austen focuses on these silly, superficial details the book is incredibly slow. It is true that you get a good idea of what is going on and what everybody thinks about it, but the rate at which events take place bores the reader. I am not a person that enjoys very detailed books where not much happens and Pride and Prejudice is just the case.

I have come to the conclusion that, as Mr. Tangen suggested, after I find something I like in the book it has to become my primary focus. At this point it is probably the rate at which it moves. It is entertaining to see how Austen writes. I am not insinuating that it is not good, because it clearly is; I am only saying that I have laughed at the characters interpretations of each other. After all, it is a ladies book.