The Heroine's Bookshelf » classics http://theheroinesbookshelf.com Books fit for a heroine Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:15:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Happy Birthday, Pride and Prejudice! http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/01/28/happy-birthday-pride-and-prejudice/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/01/28/happy-birthday-pride-and-prejudice/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:07:33 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=68 Today is the 197th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s immortal (so far) Pride and Prejudice, which is fittingly the very first book I dove into when writing The Heroine’s Bookshelf.  After all, what bibliophile in her right mind can really resist such a spirited, flawed, funny, sexy, and articulate heroine (and such an arch and fascinating authoress)?  In celebration of Lizzy Bennet’s debut into the literary world, here are some of my favorite links and factoids about the eternal P&P:

  • Jane began writing Pride and Prejudice when she was just 21 years old.  The book was originally entitled First Impressions.
  • Jane actually gave away the rights to her best-known book, selling them to publisher Thomas Egerton for just £110 (he argued her down from £150).
  • Though witty and accomplished herself, Jane was more similar to her grumpy, outsiderish leading man, Fitzwilliam Darcy, than her sparkling female protagonist.
  • Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the spoof spinoff from Quirk Books, has sold over 700,000 copies to date and spawned an entire series of spooftastic books related to classic literature.
  • The 1995 Jennifer Ehle/Colin Firth adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is the best televised or filmed P&P incarnation, ever.  This is an incontrovertible fact.

Finally, here are two of my favorite P&P resources:  a detailed Pride and Prejudice character map (left), and Pride and Prejudice in Facebook form (right):
austenbook

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