Dear reader, I start this blog post with yet another confession, which is thus: Although I will be talking today about three different variations on Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, I have yet to read the actual novel. Has that ever happened to you? I now have a fear that when I do get to reading the actual novel, my reading of it will be tainted by these three adaptations I’ve read before it. But I suppose, even if I hadn’t read them, I would still be bringing my own ideas, perspectives, and the like to the original anyway, so really is there a way for me to read Pride and Prejudice objectively?

Ironically, I have a hard time reading classics, but yet I have read three adaptation of it. My main problem with classic is I find the archaic language quite distracting, to the point where it almost gets in the way of my physical reading of the story, if that makes sense. But, never fear dear reader, I will read Pride and Prejudice at some point!

The first book I’ll be talking about is an Amish retelling by Sarah Price. The setting being Amish, I felt like this retelling was the closest to the original, what with the getting around by horse and buggy and there being no electricity. This book was actually my first foray into Amish fiction. It was something I found myself avoiding for a long time because I assumed I wouldn’t like it. What a silly thing, our assumptions! Much like regency romance, I have now fallen headlong down the rabbit hole of Amish fiction. Not only have I read other retellings of classic novels by Sarah Price, but I’ve also listened to several Amish fiction audiobooks. What worlds of reading we keep ourselves from simply by assuming we couldn’t enjoy them!

First Impressions by Sarah Price

With five daughters and no sons, Daed and Maem Blank are anxious to find their girls suitors who might eventually take over their family farm. When news arrives that Charles Beachey, the son of a prominent Amish farmer, will be returning from Ohio with his cousin Frederick, they are hopeful that the young men might be good matches for their daughters.
 
The oldest daughter, Jane, starts courting Charles, a well-mannered and very respectful young man, but her younger sister Lizzie is not interested in either courtship or Frederick. In fact, she wants nothing to do with him, finding him full of pride and disdain for her family’s way of life. But in a community and culture where pride is scorned, Lizzie must learn that first impressions can be dangerous and people are not always who they seem to be. 

This Amish retelling of the popular Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice is a beautiful take on the power of love to overcome class boundaries and prejudices that will win your heart.

Dear reader, I must fully admit to being more than a little bored while reading this retelling, which worries me in my endeavor to read the original text. While I was reading it, it made me think of that most infamous review of the original Pride and Prejudice, wherein the person claimed it to be “just a book about people going over to one another’s houses”. There is much more to it than that, I’m sure! Just as there was more to Sarah Price’s retelling. But taken at surface level, I could see how one would think that.

Not only was it my first glimpse into Amish life, but it was also an important lesson of the dangers of acting on first impressions, and, you guessed it, prejudices. One of the things I find most maddening in books is when one character won’t let another one fully explain a situation, instead interjecting with their own ideas and frustrations, and then leaving. It simply makes my blood boil! And then those misunderstandings get carried through multiple chapters with those characters avoiding one another, and nothing gets resolved.

I felt like Sarah Price’s retelling of Emma suffered from a lot of the same issues, with the main character – yes, you guessed it, Emma! – interfering in others lives where she shouldn’t have, and then having to face the consequences of that. Characters that think they know a certain situation and what is best, but in the end it turns out they had everything wrong and a bigger muddle is made than if they had just let things take their natural course. But isn’t that the human way?

Dear reader, can you imagine writing a book so many hundreds of years ago that is still being talked about and reimagined today? What staying power! I truly wonder what people thought of Pride and Prejudice when it was first released. How magical that must have been for readers.

The next retelling is something completely different, and is one I came across thanks to an Instagram video.

Continue reading “Pride and Prejudice, Three Different Ways” →