Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Chapter One

Well, welcome to black eye Alana. Uh, thank you. Yeah, you want to say what happened?

Um, wasn't too bad. I was at training on Thursday night. I was going with this boy, sort of shorter than me but my age, uh, and we were going hard and he kind of uppercutted me with his head, like a headbutt. Uh, so it swelled up really fast, so I just had to ice it. 30 minutes off. That's it.

Okay, well, that's part of being, uh, in a vigorous physical sport. Um, so Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. How far did you get into Jane Austen?

Uh, so I borrowed it maybe like yesterday. Uh, I'm in chapter 2. Uh, today, later today, I'm gonna carve out some time to read it, but it's great so far. I think I understand.

So first, why, why were you inspired to read it? What led you to think you would want to read it?

Um, well, I noticed that I haven't been reading, uh, like lots of classics in my free time, so I decided to pick that one up. Or I know that Jane Austen is a great author and I haven't read any, if at all, her books, so I decided to pick one and start there.

Got it. And so tell me, what's your take on chapter 1? What do you, what do you think about it?

Uh, so chapter 1 is a dialogue where Forgot his name, but the character is talking with his wife about a newcomer in town, and he's talking about the newcomer potentially meeting and marrying one of his daughters, which I thought was interesting because I'm not used to that kind of, "Oh, let's have a rich man marry my daughter" dynamic. The character didn't want to go meet him, not too sure why. Um, but he was kind of arguing with his wife about it.

Got it. What do you make of the, um, I want a rich guy to marry my daughter's dynamic? How does that land for you?

Different, because I've never— oh, I, I've never met anyone who's like doing that kind of stuff. Um, but interesting to read about because I know that happens still and has happened lots. Throughout time. Uh, it's just interesting because they don't know the guy and they don't know if he's like nice or funny or boring or really dry or whatever. I think he's young, but I'm sure he could be old. Um, so you've kind of been—

I was going to say, so you've kind of known that this has been a phenomenon, uh, in many places in history, um, but you've just never kind of thought through the social reality of what it's like to to have that be your social dynamic is let's marry the daughters off to rich guys.

Yeah. And I've never thought of that happening to me, so I don't really understand.

Got it. That said, how do you find the tone of Jane Austen? Do you think it's funny or serious or strange or bizarre or mythical, or how would you describe the tone?

Um, the first chapter was mainly fast-paced dialogue, so I— the tone, I guess I could describe it as like back and forth, fast-paced, just for now. But as it gets more descriptive, I'm sure I'll be able to come up with another word for it.

Got it. Um, did anything strike you as funny at all?

Uh, funny as in the text or funny as in the story?

Funny as in the text.

Yeah, the word said Um, well, I mean, I guess in terms of the characters talking, um, well, they seem to be older and they have— they're using big fancy words, um, lots of descriptive words about the new guy, his daughters. Uh, but yeah, that's it.

Okay, well, I will— you know, I read it long ago and far away when I was closer to your age. And on this reading, I'm a number of chapters ahead of you, but I'm personally finding it very funny. So it'll be interesting for you to read it and see if you can see why I might find it funny. The very first line, do you remember the very first line?

No, not off the top of my head.

It's actually one of the most famous first lines in all of literary history. I'm looking it up right now, but it won a contest for the second most famous line. Moby Dick was the first one. Call me Ishmael is the most famous.

Oh yeah, I know that one.

Okay, but I'm going to put this in the Zoom and see if it strikes a bell. So it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Remember that?

Yes, I remember that.

And how do you interpret that? What do you— what does that mean to you?

Um, well, uh, well, every man with a fortune, uh, is looking for a wife. That's basically what it means, right?

Kind of, yes.

Wait, can you, can you restate it please?

Yeah, it's in the chat, but it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

I think there's a couple things. Um, first off, a man that has a good fortune, um, I'm assuming other people look up to him because he has great fortune, right? They're looking to him. And, um, that to have a good fortune is one thing. And I'm not sure, I don't know a lot about like the social standards in whatever time they're in. But having a wife is a different thing. That means you can have children, means you can have a family. And I think it might— I don't really know how to say it, but I think that's just something that people are just based off that line. That's something that men with good fortune had, I guess.

Got it. So, all true. And I guess I actually find this line a little bit funny. So, can you imagine why I might find it, even this line, a little bit funny?

Because that's not how it is today. Most of the time.

So, rather than kind of have you guess, I would say that First of all, Pride and Prejudice is known as a novel of manners. Can you imagine why it might be described as a novel of manners?

Uh, because the characters' manners were different at that time or in the book?

Certainly, although when it was written, it was written, it was a bestseller shortly after it was written. So the, what made it successful is not in fact the fact that we're now reading it 200 years later, but it was engaging from the start. But for me, a lot of the fun that I have with the book, and of course it is an alien world for me as well. I've never lived in a place where everybody's trying to get their daughters married off to rich guys. But there's a sort of, I would say, a social dynamic, and you see it even in the first chapter, a little bit between the mom and the dad and the daughters and how they're all viewing I think it's Bingsley is the new fellow in the neighborhood. Right. Does that make sense? That— can you see that there's sort of a little bit of a different dynamic between how they're all talking about him?

Yeah, I think so. So manners and just like the way they're speaking about people?

Yeah, exactly. That's certainly a big part of it, how they're speaking about people. And I would say part of this is social class plays a big role in this. You know, obviously they want to— part of the challenge early on in the book is the girls are not established. The family does not have wealth, meaning the need to marry up is more significant. But I would say as you read it, I mean, it's possible you'll find it boring. It's just plain possible you'll find it boring, and that's okay. But I think one way to look at it is to look at the different ways that the mom and the dad and the daughters, and of course the daughters are 5 of them, they have different takes on it, but how each of them is sort of approaching this, the men of fortune. And of course it turns out there were gonna be 2, at least 2 important men with fortunes. And so you might kind of look at dad's attitude, mom's attitude, and the girl's attitude and sort of get their take. And for me, a lot of the comedy, so to speak, and it's not, you know, shout out loud, roaring comedy, but for me, a lot of the comedy is to kind of see how each of them maneuvers. Um, does it make sense that they're kind of making social maneuvers?

Yeah. Especially when you're trying to maneuver up the hierarchy, I guess.

Exactly. So I would say have fun looking at the maneuvers. Um, and with that, I'll— I take it you're at a tournament today?

Yes, I am.

Have you, um, competed yet?

Oh, uh, it's not a tournament for me. We're going— or my friends and I, uh, drove up to LA to support our professors and friends because they're competing. It's an adult competition, but it's very important.

Good, good, good. In which case, I'll let you go to the competition. Um, good to touch base, and I look forward to the next installment of Pride and Prejudice. Have a wonderful day. Yep, bye.