Review: The Annotated Pride and Prejudice

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rereading a book is fun. And I confess, it's been way too many years since I read Pride & Prejudice.

I picked the Annotated one because, well, I wanted context and explanations, for things that the reader at the time would have understood, or what scholarship can now tell us.

It was a delight having all that information while I was reading.

My first read as a teen was as someone who didn't get the class differences at play here; they had servants so how where they not rich? Why would people take a walk around the room?

I better appreciated the class differences this time around. I also better saw that Mr. Bennet was part of the problem and hardly faultless. What an odd pair, the parents. And how little was done for the daughters.

I also appreciated the structure, the timing of what was going on when.

Also interesting: how in the background servants are. They are necessary and needed for the Bennets' life, and the lives of all around them, of course, but so little attention is given to them.

But of course what was best was the dialogue! Elizabeth! Darcy! Character growth! The look of a year in the life of a family, the ups and downs.

My big question for you all: what biography of Jane Austen do you recommend?