读书报告
I.Introduction
The English author Jane Austen lived from 1775 to 1817.Born on December 16th, 1775 at Steventon, Hampshire, England.Austen was one of eight children of an English clergyman, and given the accomplishments of her novels.She was educated mainly at home.At an early age she began writing sketches and satires of popular novels for her family\'s entertainment.As a clergyman\'s daughter from a well-connected family, she had ample opportunity to study the habits of the middle cla, the gentry, and the aristocracy.She lived a remarkably quiet and domestic life in the rural south of England.She never married and was only 41 when she died.
Jane Austen\'s novels were witty, warm and ironic portraits of the privileged claes of 18th- and 19th-century England.Her novels are highly prized not only for their light irony, humor, and depiction of contemporary English country life, but also for their underlying serious qualities. Novels
Sense and Sensibility (1811) Pride and Prejudice (1813) Mansfield Park (1814) Emma (1815)
Northanger Abbey (1817) (posthumous) Persuasion (1817) (posthumous) Short fiction
Lady Susan (1794, 1805) Unfinished fiction
The Watsons (1804) Sanditon (1817) Other works
Sir Charles Grandison (1793, 1800) Plan of a Novel (1815) Poems Prayers Letters
II.Summary The story shows the British society\'s life at that time by describing the marriage problems.It mainly describes the love story of Bennet ’s several daughters.Mr.Bingley is newly from London and falls in love with the biggest daughter, Jane.His friend Darcy is sweet upon the second daughter Elizabeth, but their marriage moves slowly for some reasons.After a range of interesting troubles, the misunderstandings are finally removed.With Darcy overcomes his pride, and Elizabeth overcomes her prejudice, they get together finally.By describing different marriages, Austin exprees her opinions of the marriage which insist on the understanding to each other.To a certain extent, this novel also reflects the wish for the independent marriage for women at that time.
Mr.Bennet is an English gentleman living in Hertfordshire with his overbearing wife.The Bennets 5 daughters: the beautiful Jane, the clever Elizabeth, the bookish Mary, the immature Kitty and the wild Lydia.Unfortunately for the Bennets, if Mr.Bennet dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family\'s future happine and security are dependent on the daughters making good marriages.
Life is uneventful until the arrival in the neighborhood of the rich gentleman Mr.Bingley, who rents a large house so he can spend the summer in the country.Mr.Bingley brings with him his sister and his friend Mr.Darcy.One night, at a dancing party, Mr.Bingley is well-received in the community; but Mr.Darcy is very proud and indifferent to other people. Mr.Bingley falls in love with Jane immediately, and so does Jane.Mr.Bingley and Jane Bennet begin to grow close relationship despite Mrs.Bennet\'s interference and the opposition of Bingley\'s sister.Because of Mr.Darcy’s pride, Elizabeth is stung by his haughty rejection of her and decides to match his coldne with her own wit.Sometime later, Mr.Darcy begins to develop interests in Elizabeth.At another dancing party, Mr.Darcy invites Elizabeth to dance only to be refused.Mr.Darcy is in a difficult position.At the same time
Elizabeth begins a friendship with Mr.Wickham, a militia officer who relates a prior acquaintance with Darcy.Wickham tells her that he has been seriously mistreated by Darcy.Elizabeth immediately seizes upon this information as another reason to hate Darcy. Bingley\'s sister has pursuit Mr.Darcy for a long time, but when she finds that Mr.Darcy is fond of Elizabeth.The anger makes her prevent the development of their relationship.In addition, Mr.Darcy also dislikes Elizabeth’s mother and sisters for their vulgarism.Finally, Mr.Bingley leaves London under the persuasion of his sister and Mr.Darcy.Before Bingley leaves, Mr.Collins, the male relative who is to inherit Longbourn, makes a sudden appearance and stays with the Bennets.He is a recently ordained clergyman employed by the wealthy and patronizing Lady Catherine de Bourgh.Collins has another reason for visiting: he wishes to find a wife from among the Bennet sisters.Mr.Bennet and Elizabeth are amused by his self-important and pedantic behavior.He immediately enters pursuit of Jane; however, when Mrs.Bennet mentions her preoccupation with Mr.Bingley, he turns to Elizabeth.He soon proposes marriage to Elizabeth, only to be refused again.Collins quickly recovers and proposes to Elizabeth\'s close friend, Charlotte Lucas, who immediately accepts him.Once the marriage is arranged, Charlotte asks Elizabeth to come for an extended visit.
In the spring, Elizabeth joins Charlotte and her cousin at his parish in Kent.The parish is adjacent to Rosings Park, the grand manor of Mr.Darcy\'s aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, where Elizabeth frequently invites.While calling on Lady Catherine, Mr.Darcy encounters Elizabeth.She discovers from a cousin of Darcy that it is he who separates Bingley and Jane.Soon after, Darcy admits his love of Elizabeth and proposes to her.Insulted by his high-handed and insulting manner of proposing, Elizabeth refuses him.When he asks why she should refuse him, she tells him the story of Bingley and Jane, furthermore, she also takes Mr.Wickham’s story as an example to blame Mr.Darcy.
Deeply shaken by Elizabeth\'s vehemence and accusations, Darcy writes her a letter justifying his actions and decides to change himself.In the letter, he says that it is Wickham who uses up all the legacy-settlement. As for Bingley and Jane, Darcy justifies his actions from having observed that Jane does not show any reciprocal interest in his friend; thus his aim in separating them is mainly to protect Bingley from heartache.Darcy admits he is concerned about the disadvantageous connection with Elizabeth\'s family, especially her embarraing mother and wild younger sisters.
After reading the letter, Elizabeth begins to question both her family\'s behaviors and Wickham\'s credibility; she concludes that Wickham is not as trustworthy as his easy manners would indicate, and that her early impreions of Darcy may not have been accurate.Soon after receiving the letter Elizabeth returns home.Some months later, during a tour of Derbyshire with her aunt and uncle, Elizabeth visits Darcy\'s estate.There they meet again, and Darcy is different from before.He becomes friendly and modest, which leaves Elizabeth a good impreion.Some good things happening between Darcy and Elizabeth when news arrives that Elizabeth\'s younger sister Lydia has run away with Wickham.Elizabeth is convinced that Darcy will be angry with her.However, Darcy does the opposite thing.With the help of Darcy, Lydia and Wickham are found and married.Bingley and Jane are together after a lot of hardships in the end, but Darcy’s aunt Lady Catherine travels to Longbourn with the sole aim of confronting Elizabeth and demanding that she never accepts such a proposal of marries Darcy.Elizabeth refuses to bow to Lady Catherine\'s demands.When the news reaches Darcy, it convinces him that her opinion of him has changed.When he visits, he once again proposes marriage.Elizabeth accepts, and the two become engaged.In the end, all the people in the novel are happy, and this is the happy ending.
III.Comments
In my opinion, this book is an illustration of the society at that time.It perfectly reflects the relation between money and marriage at her time and gives the people in her works vivid characters.The characters have their own personalities.The most important part of the novel is the love story between Elizabeth and Darcy.Elizabeth is a smart and beautiful girl born in a middle cla family who is persistent and brave in the pursuit of love.The story’s spread leads on Elizabeth’s feeling to Darcy: from detestation to admiration and then love.In addition, other people’s happine also appears during this period of time.Jane Austen writes this for the purpose of showing the thinking of the women’s love, marriage and expectation at that time.
Now let me talk something about the marriage in the novel briefly.Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage is based on both money and love, and love is more important.This is the perfect marriage.The only purpose of Collins and Lucas’ marriage is pursuit.Only by
marrying someone can Lucas feels safety.Jane and Bingley’s marriage is based on beauty and money.This is also a kind of good marriage.They will be happy.Lydia and Wickham’s marriage is only based on paion.They only care about the appearance.We can image whether their life will happy or not.Jane Austen thinks that it is wrong for people to marry for money and social statues; on the other hand, she also disagrees to the marriage regardle of the former aspects.So Jane Austen calls on the reasonable marriage, and the marriage should be based on love.
In modern society, although the marriages of economic needs have decreased rapidly, the concept of “money determines everything” is still rooted in some people’s mind.A lot of parents try hard to interfere their children’s marriages.Education background, poeions, jobs remain the main reason that may influence one’s marriage.Marrying for money is still a big problem in our society.We can’t help thinking: can money determine everything? Austen left this problem for us to think.The genius of Jane Austen lies in this perfect simplicity, and the simplicity that reflects big problems.Although Austen was only 21 when she wrote “Pride and Prejudice”, her sharp observation of social lives makes the style of this book surprisingly mature and lively.The plots in her works are always very natural.The development of the plot is as inevitable as a problem in mathematics.I think the depth of Pride and Prejudice is the reason that makes this book prominent and claic.Today, her book still can be the guide telling us the economic relationships both at her time and in modern time.I really learn a lot from the book, which makes me think a lot.It is one of the best books that I have ever read.Furthermore, I think it is one of the best books that have ever been written.The reason that I have such feelings maybe I really read too few books.So, there are still many wonderful books in front of me waiting to be read.
Keep reading, keep moving.
