Book review: Pride and Prejudice

The fascinating world of classics is often fortressed due to timeand language constraints, for modern day readers

Though Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has popped up in the unlikeliest of places with almost 74 authors living on the legacy of the Darcys and Elizabeths till date; Campfire, the Delhi-based graphic novel publishing company has devised the perfect way to recreate and simulate the drama behind this universal read.

A well-produced graphic novel, it features the protagonists, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, on the cover of this enjoyable read. As it is well-known, the book focusses on the Bennet family highlighting the marital fate of three daughters — Jane, Elizabeth and Lydia (in order of their age). The arrival of Charles Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy sets the pace of the graphic novel as they court and eventually marry Jane and Elizabeth respectively, with several supporting characters complicating the plot, on the side.

Pride & Prejudice, Campfire Comics, Rs 350. Available at leading bookstores.

The graphic novel figures out as an apt and pacy read for the city on the go that could prove to be equally popular in schools’ curricula. Hued in perfect Victorian muted colours, the illustrators have taken great pains to etch out the dramatis personae as per their dispositions. It’s remarkable that the language of the novel is retained to the T, which due to its packed sentence structure, aids the read.

As one trots along, the visible change in Darcy and Elizabeth is justifiably captured while their first stand-off is given appropriate perspective and angles recreating the debate that would have happened between the more-than-real characters. Still, the book could have profited with a character map as well as rectification of bloopers such as no mention of Kitty when Mr Bennet confesses his folly for letting Lydia go to Brighton as he speaks to Elizabeth.u00a0Captured skillfully in its element, the graphic novel will strike a chord with many readers still, as this behemoth of a work completes 200 thriving years in 2013. u00a0u00a0

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