Chefelf.com Night Life: Pride And Prejudice - Chefelf.com Night Life

So, they've made a new version of Pride and Prejudice. Yeah, great, another thing for English teachers to torture the kids of tomorrow with in English lessons. As far as I can tell, its got two main differences from the last version:

-Its got Kiera Nightly in it (well, to hear my best mate rattling on, that's the only reason to see it. Might be right...)

-Its "darker".

Whack me in the balls with a bamboo cane if I'm wrong, but wasn't Pride and Prejudice essentially just one of those slushy romance novels, only written to the standards of the Victorian Era? How the hell do you make something like that "darker"? This has been plaguing me for weeks since it was slathered all over a newspapers Sunday magazine. How?

Hopefully it won't turn out like the Wuthering Heights that mtv did. Pure crappola.

Everything has to be "dark" or "gritty" or "mean & nasty" these days. That's how young people define "cool" or so the stereotype goes.

I'll bet if this live action/CGI Transformers movie ever gets made they'll have rewritten Optimus Prime as a Dark, Jaded Avenger of some sort.

*Dorothy takes out bamboo cane* Whack whack... and whack, for good measure.

1. The Victorian era is defined as the years 1837-1901. Victorian Era

2. Jane Austen lived from 1775-1817, and wrote Pride and Prejudice in 1813. Austen

3. Pride and Prejudice is not just a "slushy romance ( so there)." It speaks not only to the role of women in her culture at that time, but also to the pride of the people in the upper classes and the prejudice of the lower classes against the upper class. The character development is actually quite good, and while it is a very romantic book, it is also a fine read. A fine read

Edit: But you are absolutely right about this "darker" nonsense. Seriously, if they ruin this story, I will cry. I can stand Clueless being based on Emma, but I will weep for this story. I think I'll start now

Edit, the sequel: There are aspects of the story that were quite grimy to begin with, for that time, but It just makes me sick and crying and sick to think of the potential for badness that this movie has...sigh.

This post has been edited by Dorothy: 10 August 2005 - 11:17 AM

P&P is actually a rather condemning and witty (not to mention embittered) satire on the late Regency marriage market, and a commentary on that society's obsession with marrying for money and power. The two main characters are a brooding goth-equivalent who sulks and sneers at all the whittering giggling bimbos and sycophantic toadies who want his riches, and a dry, sarcastic, good-natured bitch who wanders through mud in the rain and flips off all the society ladies who gasp in horror at her wilful ways. The pair of them meet each other and exchange snide remarks for two thirds of the book or so before their mutual contempt for everything else in the world draws them together. It certainly isn't written 'to the standards of the Victorian Era' (or even the Regency era), and is in no way 'slushy'.

Where's my fucking bamboo cane...

edit: fuck you, Dorothy.

This post has been edited by Rhubarb: 10 August 2005 - 11:35 AM

Rhubarb, you make me laugh. But good evaluation of P&P. The interaction between Darcy and Elizabeth is everything that a good romance should be. Most of today's "love" stories go straight for sex, or straight for "I love him/her and I don't know why," but in this story you can see the process by which they each realize that they were wrong about the other, and that they love each other. Sigh, it's beautimus. Good point about them hating everyone around them. Every woman needs a man who is just as bitter as she is.

Well, I fucking hate love stories, and always have. But I liked P&P. The only other two I've been able to stomach have been Jane Eyre (because she and Mr. Rochester were both so fucking mental, not to mention ugly, which was a refreshing change) and Tipping The Velvet (yay Victorian lesbians).

Oh yeah, I should probably mention that I've hated everything else Austen has written.

This post has been edited by Rhubarb: 10 August 2005 - 11:37 AM

I'm tired of every movie version of P&P having to follow the book. I figure hey, we all read the book; and since it's about 200 years old, if we haven't, we aren't planning to. I figure the genre's evolved anyhow: since basically every single movie ever made has borrowed Austen's first-met-hated-one-another-then-later-didn't formula, from BRINGING UP BABY to MOONLIGHTING to SHANGHAI NOON, P&P should borrow right back.

I hear in this one there is a plot among the aristocracy to eat the poor, since in this one the aristocracy are vampires that came to Earth in the middle of a curious storm where lightning struck the same spot repeatedly. Darcy has to challenge the head Vampire to a dance battle, straight street, but it turns ugly when the head Vamp outs Darcy's brother in front of everyone, leading to a grisly suicide past between the brother and his lover at the Battle of Waterloo. A funny moment arrives at last when Elizabeth kicks Darcy in the balls. "Universally acknowledge this!"

I love vampires, but...

Oh, and Rhubarb I also enjoyed Wuthering Heights...they are all so angry and crazy...it's good. P&P is an exceptional book.

What about Bride and Prejudice? Man that movie was so bad it hurt! The girl does not like the guy at first because he's a 'close minded' american that does not really understand her indian culture. Later he does understand her Indian cultrue so they marry.

This post has been edited by Jordan: 10 August 2005 - 02:11 PM

I haven't seen it yet, but when I read about it, I cringed a little.

Dorothy - Read Cold Comfort Farm, the answer to 1800s depressing goth novels.

My only thought on this at the moment is, "Why the fuck haven't I read this book yet?"

'Cos it's kind of long and rambling and is written in that flowery Regency speech where everyone takes the long way around every sentence and has some aversion to contractions?