A profound, witty read with excellent values and clean romance.
Plot
Elizabeth Bennet is the second eldest of five sisters in a lower class family. Her life consists of attempting to keep her wild younger sisters in line and checking the unbridled gossip of her mother...until the arrival of Mr. Bingley, a wealthy man of 5,000 pounds a year, to the neighborhood. He brings with him his proud friend, Mr. Darcy, and thus commences a battle of love and wits between Darcy and Elizabeth.
Morality
Quite good. Respectability, forgiveness, humility, and generosity are only a few of the excellent values portrayed in this story. Frivolity, ignorance, and shamelessness all incur the disgust of Elizabeth.
Spiritual Content
Mr. Collins, Elizabeth's cousin, is a clergyman. Otherwise, the only spiritual content comes from one or two mentions of church.
Violence
None.
Drug and Alcohol Content
Wine is mentioned and there seems to be one man who likes his drink a bit too much.
Sexual Content
There is absolutely no graphic sexual content. One of Elizabeth's sisters elopes with a young man, but to this most of the Bennet family (including Elizabeth herself) react in shock and horror, the fact being portrayed as a gross loss of virtue. This event, though it takes up a large part of the second half of the book, is only referenced and nothing is bluntly said of what may have passed between Elizabeth's sister and the man she eloped with.
Crude or Profane Language or Content
In a moment of shock when he loses control of himself, Mr. Darcy cries "Good God." He quickly amends himself, however. Lydia often cries "Oh, Lord!" - an expression probably meant to show her own atrocious lack of manners.
Conclusion
This book is written with an extraordinary wit that lends itself both to a reader of comedy as well as a reader of emotive novels. It is easy to become engrossed in the tale as well as the characters, and Elizabeth is a splendid heroine.
This review is brought to you by Jeanne.
