Pride and Prejudice

I love Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” with an irrational passion. I have read it so many times I have truly lost count. I do not know of a single male friend or acquaintance who can stomach it though. What makes this book so irresistible to me? It is not easy to come up with an answer – it’s sort of like asking “why do you love your kids?”
I have known this book ever since I was 14 years old. I loved it then for the storyline. I love it now for the humour and the accuracy of the picturisations of all the characters. I feel like I have known Darcy since he was a child. Elizabeth was probably my best friend. How I wished I could talk like her! Mr Collins truly had me sniggering and his style of proposing was beyond ridiculous. I have to admit I never liked Jane. She sort of reminds me of Aishwarya Rai and reeks of being too perfect. The delicious way Elizabeth spars with the horribly jealous Miss Bingley has to be read over and over again to be truly savoured.
The contemptuous Mr Bennet and his airheaded and hysterical wife along with the wicked Mr Wickham are other characters not to be missed. I know whole portions of the book by heart. I suppose it sounds rather weird to have such strong attachment to a book in this age of ‘e-everything’ but perhaps it’s the memories associated with it that make the book all the more precious to me.
The highlight of the book has to be Darcy’s haughty proposal and Elizabeth’s unforgettable rejection – “You are mistaken Mr Darcy if you suppose that the mode of your declaration has affected me in any other manner than as it spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you ,had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner!”. Phew! Isn’t that really awesome? Yes, I did write it from memory. Of course the two do get married at the end but that’s just to be expected.