Every year, the same inkling comes back. The itching in the back of my consciousness, the yearning for language that slides around in my head like butter, and I know it must be time to read Pride and Prejudice again.
Opening Pride and Prejudice, for me, is like hugging a long-time friend, someone who hasn’t been to see you in a while. The story is so familiar and the language so rich, it usually takes me longer to read than other books. Which is okay. Some books deserve to be savored (preferably in my comfy chair with a cup of hot tea).
One reason I like going back and reading it so much is because it forces me to be single minded and focus on one task as opposed to many. On a daily basis, I’m constantly multitasking. I’m in the shower and thinking about my to do list. I’m fixing lunches and breakfast simultaneously. I’m checking to make sure all the kids have their coats, backpacks, show and tell items, water bottles, and shoes that I sometimes my mind swirls. At work I’m teaching and redirecting behavior and trying to take attendance and assist the kid who was absent the day before. At lunch I’m eating and walking around being crowd control because having 400 kids eating lunch at the same time it hectic. And the list goes on. I know that I need something to slow me down, give my multi-tasking brain a break. Usually reading is my go-to brain relaxer, but sometimes (like after eating lunch with 400 middle schoolers) you need an extra dose of relaxation. Hence, Pride and Prejudice. It takes me back to a time when life was a little simpler, a little less chaotic.
Another reason this book is powerful to me is the language. Oh, the language! You cannot help by get lost in it. I know some people are shaking their heads at me because you once tried to read it (or were forced to for school) and couldn’t get past the words. But sometimes you just have to get over the words literally on the page and just pick up the feel of the story. Instead of stating, “I’m angry at you for breaking up my sister and her boyfriend” it says, “You dare not, you cannot deny, that you have been the principal, if not the only means of dividing them from each other—of exposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and instability, and the other to its derision for disappointed hopes, and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind.” I mean, who talks like that nowadays? No one!
Finally, the story draws me back time and time again. It’s a seemingly simple premise stated in the first line of the book: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” This one statement will propel the characters’ actions and motives throughout the book, however, this book is more that just a chick-lit love story. It’s about forgiveness. It’s about how people can be misjudged based on their appearances. It’s about how strong our words can be, so instead of being harsh with one another, we should seek to understand each other without our preconceived notions getting in the way. Each time I read it, I take away a new aspect of the story, usually based on what I need to hear at the time.
Maybe P&P isn’t your book. That’s fine (we can still be friends). That’s not important. What is important is that you have a comfort book, a book that has changed your life, your way of thinking, your habits. Find a book that you want to go back to over and over and over. And just read. That’s what’s important.
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