Wait a minute, that’s not Pride and Prej.
Is there a book in your life that took over your imagination? There have been a few for me. The first book I ever sank into–in second grade–The Cricket in Times Square. I’ve been a book lover ever since.
There was the magic of the first time through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I had no idea what I was getting into, having purchased it solely based upon the cover. Just recently, I was taken over by The Fault in Our Stars, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Anna Dressed in Blood, and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.
And then there was Pride and Prejudice.
The only book outside of Harry Potter which has so fully taken over my mind, my dreams, and my thoughts.
This book was assigned in my first lit class in college. I’d heard of it, but never read it, but I laughed out loud, discovered for the first time the joy of discussing literature with others who are reading the book too, and there was the magic of Lizzie. Lizzie Bennett, you are everything I want to be. Jane Austen, you are the writer I wish I was a mere shadow of, and then there was the discovery of her other books. Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion. Oh, Persuasion, how I love you. How I wish I had the morality of Anne and the love of Wentworth.
Two hundred years ago, this month, Pride and Prejudice was published and the world of publishing was forever changed. And, with it, my life.
My love of Anthony Trollope is based upon a wish for more Jane Austen. As is my love for Elizabeth Gaskell and Georgette Heyer. Pride and Prejudice, with your flock of sisters who are true reflections of people we know–even though two hundred years have passed, you are awesome. You are incredible, with the mother who clearly loves her children and works hard to ensure a future for them, while their father putters around never acting–only hoping. Mr. Darcy, I wish to marry you. Lizzie Bennett, if I can not be you, may I be your best friend?
Pride and Prejudice, I love you.
This isn’t really a book review, but a gratitude-splosion, but do I recommend it? Absolutely.
Have you read it? Have you enjoyed the youTube version of it? Have you slain zombies with Lizzie in the Chinese style? Do you own every movie version you can find?
If so, we should be best friends.
~Amanda
Amanda A. Allen 
I saw online somewhere that this month was the 200th anniversary. Maybe I will try to tackle it this month since it’s on my kindle already and I have never read any Jane Austen books.