I read this entire novel and all the side notes (for they are on the side, not the end or foot) aloud to my spouse starting March 24, 2026. We finished June 24, 2026. If you’ve been here before, likely you know I’ve never read Pride and Prejudice. The following notes were written as they came to me, meaning they are in order with the chronology of the novel.
- When exactly do we learn there are five Bennett daughters? Is this just already known thanks to the book’s notoriety? I already knew which ones I was supposed to hate…
- The number of times I’ve said, “What a shithead!” aloud.
- Why is Mr. Bingley so nice, and why can’t he be Elizabeth’s love interest? I mean, Jane could have conveniently died from that cold…
- I literally just said “what a little shithead” again.
- It’s impressive that anyone knows who’s talking in this book, because the lack of dialogue tags is astounding.
- The notes about the flogged soldier are interesting. Not only do Kitty and Lydia not think about why soldiers are there, but the context of why certain soldiers were flogged and how common the practice was.
- The note about how the word “nice” has changed meaning. According to the editor, it used to mean “foolish, silly, ignorant.” However, before Austen’s time, “nice” had these various meanings: “wanton or lascivious, showy, effeminine, fastidious, refined, shy, pampered, trivial, risky, and dainty.”
- I was really surprised by the chapter in which Elizabeth and Mr Wickham shit-talk all kinds of people. It seems really malicious and gossipy, uncharacteristic of what I’ve been told about Elizabeth.
- I feel like Mary gets a bad rap. Everyone seems so upset with her for having thoughts that aren’t nuanced, but she’s a freaking teenager. Also, the scene during which she starts singing, and Elizabeth is just horribly embarrassed. In the text, it doesn’t say that Mary’s a bad or boastful singer; she was just eager to sing. Poor Mary!
- I’m truly confused as to what Darcy was thinking when he told Elizabeth that he was proposing to her, and that he had saved his friend, Mr Bingley, from the same fate by putting Jane in an ill light. What did he think the outcome would be?? Even if Elizabeth was a gold digger, what kind of life was he expecting to have with her?
- Note from the editor: “Because of Darcy’s higher social status, it would not be proper for Elizabeth to introduce her aunt and uncle unless he requested the introduction.” Me: “What a dumbass society.”
- Darcy asks if he can introduce Elizabeth to his sister. Me and Nick: “Awwwww!”
- From the text: “…Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner were half a quarter of a mile behind.” Me: “Soooo, 1/8 of a mile?” Nick: “They hadn’t invented the number 8 yet.”
- When Elizabeth asks when Mr. Darcy knew he loved her, she tells him herself the reason is because she is #NotLikeOtherGirls
Grab the Lapels 
Mrs Bennet says “When a woman has five grown-up daughters” near the beginning of the first chapter. That’s when you learn there are five sisters.
Did you enjoy it? From your notes it seems like you hated it. 🙂
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I didn’t hate it; these are just moments that got a reaction out of me. Some of them are positive reactions. I think I went into it with the impression that Elizabeth Bennett is one of literature’s greatest heroines, but she was just as flawed as everyone she was judging, and she wasn’t above gossiping about other people, too. I thank some of my favorite moments were when she had to tell her family that she was engaged to Mr Darcy, and they were all so surprised. She basically had an, “Oops, my bad” moment with every family member. Can you imagine if one of your siblings talked about how much they hated somebody for over a year, and then said to you “surprise, I’m getting married to them”? It’s actually quite funny.
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I think my favourite part was the letters they write to each other. And I think Mr Bennet is funny. It is all funny, really, it’s laughing at the rudeness of polite society, and all the confusion that it causes. 🙂
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Did you notice how at the end Mr. Bennett is left looking foolish, too? It used to be he and Elizabeth were a team that made fun of others, but at the end she felt differently about it.
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I think it was all friendly really, he was a very sarcastic person, and Elizabeth had changed her understanding of Mr Darcy’s character since she last had seen him, so she had to get him up to speed so that they were on the same page again. But after she explained how nice Mr Darcy is, Mr Bennet is happy for her. And in the final chapter it says he visits Elizabeth all the time, so they must have stayed close.
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He did change; you are right. I assumed he learned a little that his behavior isn’t always appropriate. The narrator explains how Elizabeth was embarrassed of her family, even her father, for being uninvolved and undisciplined. If he were a good father, the situation with Lydia wouldn’t have happened, according to the book. Thus, Kitty is basically punished in advance for the actions of Lydia.
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Upon reflection, I think my favorite character is actually Kitty. She parties hard, doesn’t apologize for anything, dodges consequences, and ends up living true to her heart. A total shithead to be sure, but what dedication to the craft.
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🤣🤣🤣 Oh, sweetie. I like the uncle who saw Elizabeth and Mr Darcy as an advantageous match because he could go fishing whenever he wanted. Same energy as Kitty, lol.
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I think it’s about first impressions of people, and how wrong they can be. When Elizabeth first talks to Mr Wickam she thinks that he is the only nice person around. He’s sweet on the outside but mean on the inside. Mr Darcy is rough around the edges but kind hearted once you get to know him.
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I don’t even know that Mr Wickham is sweet on the outside as much as he is charismatic. Boy, have I met people like him. They tend to be in grad school.
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It is a very observant book, people obviously haven’t changed over the years. You can never really tell what’s really going on in someone’s mind.
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I’ve always read Mary as the kind of character who misses social cues and insists on singing (or whatever) when it’s not time for that yet. It’s embarrassing to be associated with someone who–for instance–butts up in line in front of someone else and starts talking about what they want to a clerk when other people have been patiently waiting their turn to do the same.
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I don’t like to diagnose fictional characters, but Nick and I did talk about how the way Mary is written reminds me of neurodivergent people. And if that’s the case, I don’t think she should be shamed for who she is. I mean, they weren’t diagnosing people as neurodivergent back then, but of course they existed, and I’m sure Jane Austen encountered such people.
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I was thinking of a friend of mine who is not neurodivergent but is rude sometimes, without really noticing it. She grew up privileged, like Mary, and just sort of expects other people to hop to it when she wants something.
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That’s a good point and part of why I’m hesitant to make silly attempts at diagnosing others. If someone is rude, it’s not fair to say, “Oh, they must be disabled.”
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Also, I am autistic and I still had to learn to be polite to people! It’s not a carte blanche to behave however you want, and it’s a bit patronising when people treat it as such. I just had to learn differently. My parents were capable of recognising that and helping me to do so, long before we knew about the autism. If Mary had half-decent parents they would have done the same thing! (I do feel a bit sorry for her whenever I reread. While I have no intention of watching it I’m glad The Other Bennet Sister is giving her a different story. I like to think she would have got there eventually, just like I did :-))
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I’m so glad you chimed in here, Lou. My impression of autism is often colored by an individual I used to word with who had absolutely LOVELY parents but this person was still dramatic and could come across as rude. I chalked it up to impulse control issues, but I’m starting to see that this person was making choices in spite of what they knew was right. In fact, most of their sentences started with, “No offense, but…” I think it would be good for me to get some books by folks with autism to get different perspectives and get this one person out of my mind as a prime example of autism. Even worse, perhaps, I am a bit of a jerk in my head when I think, “I know Lou has autism, but you could never tell!” I absolutely have some work and learning to do.
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We have only interacted in comments and video calls when we are doing something we both enjoy, i.e. talking about books! If you had met me at a party full of strangers and bad noises and weird lighting, you would definitely have been able to tell 🙂 But I hope I would still have been polite!
Re: your “no offence” acquaintance, that sounds to me like someone who has learnt one single script for conversation and just uses it for everything without thinking about context/the other people’s feelings. I have had to learn lots of scripts and deliberately identify the different contexts when they apply. I get it wrong much less often now, but I still do. (And some scripts that neurotypical people use without thinking seem so untrue to me that I just can’t use them and have had to find alternatives). This is what I mean about my parents, and other adults like my teachers and youth leaders, helping me to figure it out.
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I love that. It seems like the takeaway is about guiding each other through the craziness that is society.
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You know, I read it last year and I didn’t like it that much. I want to read more classics, but I lost motivation after reading this one.
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Having an excellent editor with accessible side notes makes a world of difference. Like I mentioned, this was my first time actually finishing this book (I only made it through the first chapter or two last time). Most editors give too much information, so you get distanced from the plot because you’re lost in the historical context. I also like that this editor uses side notes because you’re not constantly flipping back and forth or looking down. It’s just a slight eye shuffle over, and there the notes are. I also read Sense and Sensibility edited by this same person and got through the whole book and liked it. Getting through motivated me to check out more classics. Now we’re on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
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Cool! I want to return to the classics one day, but I have to look for the right ones for me.
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Regarding Wickham’s gossipy conversation with Elizabeth, I think that’s there to put the reader on alert that he might not be what he seems. Elizabeth is the main character of the book and we haven’t really seen her behave like that before, so she’s sinking to his level – like in Emma, when we see Emma and Frank Churchill behaving so badly together. I think Austen is challenging the reader to wonder if someone who brings out the worst in her character is really a suitable partner for her.
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I have noticed that I tend to match the people I’m around. I have always assumed I’m easy to influence in social situations.
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Thanks for bringing us along on your literary journey! The side notes seem like a great addition. I’ve read P&P a couple of times but never loved it. Some people seem to really love Elizabeth Bennet as a character but I’ve always felt kind of meh towards her.
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She seems opinionated and very young. I don’t think I’d get as a heroine, which I thought I would based on Meg Ryan’s character’s reaction to the book in the movie You’ve Got Mail. I do love that she has talked crap about this man for at least a year and then was like “lol jk he’s my man.”
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One thing that’s always bugged me is that it seems anytime a character in a movie is supposed to be the bookish type, she will say Pride & Prejudice is her favourite book. I don’t know why but that’s such a pet peeve of mine! It feels like this expectation that if you are a woman who likes literature, you must love Jane Austen!
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That’s an excellent point. I know that when I turn to a feminist icon, I more likely to look at someone like Linda Hamilton playing Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 or Sigourney Weaver in alien. These are strong women who make plans and get shit done. I do wonder if you’re correct, that’s saying pride and prejudice is your favorite book is a shortcut to say that you’re learned, even if the writer of the movie script hasn’t necessarily read pride and prejudice.
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You read it! Your annotated book is huge, though how nice to have notes on the side so you don’t have to keep flipping to the back of the book, I hate when the notes get put at the end. I find the whole book to be quite funny and I laugh every time when Elizabeth tells Jane that she fell in love with Darcy after seeing Pemberly 😀
Oh, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, that’s a good one and so different from all the movies and general cultural takes on it.
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I love that Elizabeth knows how bad it looks that she fell in love with Darcy after seeing his stuff 😂
We have one more chapter on Jekyll and Hyde. I never knew that it’s basically a long short story, not even a novella. No hand wringing over the duality of man so far….
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I’ve loved and read Pride & Prejudice off and on since it was first set for me in my final year of high school. In fact I reread it on the night before my exams instead of studying (and I failed English, though luckily I got into uni on my maths).
A lot of what we think about Pride and Prejudice it seems to me, comes from films. Mrs Bennet and Mary are made to look like idiots and Mr Bennet is the smart, clever one in the background. The older I get, the less I like him. He married Mrs B. for her money and then makes fun of her to his daughter. My favourite character is Lydia. She knows what she wants and she goes for it.
I’m glad you’ve read it at last, though I don’t know how Nick sat still in an upright wooden chair while you read to him.
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I wrote this post over the course of 3 months, just adding bullet points here and there of reactions that I and or Nick had. I’m starting to think it looks like I really didn’t enjoy our experience, though I did. This isn’t really a review, as I’m sure you all can tell. I agree with you about Mr Bennett. That chapter that starts with him saying how he never really loved her and she had money is pretty gross. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m also not a fan of how easily Elizabeth falls into gossip. I think Lydia is frustrating and selfish, but she does go for what she wants. That line about her getting married before Jane and having the best husband around is pretty obnoxious, but I can see why people would like her. And to clarify, Nick isn’t sitting while I read this. He’s actually brushing my hair. I’m the one sitting on the wooden chair! I never realized you were so strong in math. Probably because there’s no reason to mention it on a book blog. What was your particular strength? I always struggled in math because they would teach us types of math that were impractical from my perspective. For example, in what way does algebra apply to me? I never learned anything about how to calculate interest on a loan, though, and that would have been super helpful.
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I did 2 maths plus physics, chemistry and english for ACAAF. The C was for calculus and is the main reason I’m angry about my father condemning me to a country high school. I should have got 4 As. I went on to start an Engineering degree but life got in the way and here I am a truck driver.
In my 30s when I got an Accountancy degree and became a software developer almost my first job was for a small finance company writing software to calculate compound interest.
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I’m sorry, WHAT??? How did I not know that you worked in accounting, software developing, etc?? I can’t picture you wearing a tie, haha.
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One of my all time favorite books. I don’t really like being taken out of texts by notes, side or foot or otherwise. (Although for nonfiction I am more forgiving.) Similarly I don’t usually read forwards before I read a novel (too many spoilers)! I’m glad you seemed to enjoy it. There is a lot of humor in it and many people are made to look ridiculous. It was indeed a society based on sometimes insane social rules.
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I’m with you about not reading the introduction. It’s true, they just spoil everything with their personal analysis, and I don’t get it. Why not put all of that at the end? In this book, I did find that several of the side notes were distracting. When I read Sense and Sensibility by the same editor, I noticed that the side notes were extremely helpful, sharing things like money conversion or social norms that impact the story that I didn’t know.
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Holy Shnikeys that’s a big book, although gotta say, loves those side notes! I don’t remember reading this book, maybe I did but it was a long time ago and clearly didn’t stick. I agree – what a stupid society LOl
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I believe you have an English degree. How did you avoid it? It was assigned to me; I just didn’t finish it after 2-3 chapters.
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I know right? I do have an English degree, nice memory! I’m sure I had to read some Austen, but now I don’t even remember which ones LOL
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What a good idea to have the notes alongside the text -it does irritate me when I have to keep looking at the back to find the right reference. So much easier to just glance to one side.
Have you heard of the novel called The Other Bennet Sister. It’s all about Mary and how she tries to forge a life for herself.
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I think I have heard of that book, and I know that I reviewed a play that was focused on Mary at Christmas time meeting a gentleman who seemed to have the same way of thinking that she does.
Now that we’re reading Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, I’m definitely irritated by books that have the notes at the end. In the case of Stevenson, the editor even made separate notes, one section for footnotes, and another section to explain the meaning of common Scottish phrases. Those don’t even actually have an indication of whether a note is available, you just have to fall into a word and ask yourself whether you know it, flip to the back, and see if it’s in the alphabetically ordered list.
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What a terrible idea – depending on how much the book cost, I’d be so tempted to find a different edition
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I’m not sure bookstores are terribly agreeable to returning books, but I take your point!
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Sorry I wasn’t clear. I didn’t mean to return this copy, just buy another one of budget allows
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