Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1)

by Garth Nix

mass market paperback, 496 pages

English language

Published April 28, 1996 by Eos.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-447183-1

(171 reviews)

Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 romantic novel of manners written by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. Its humour lies in its honest depiction of manners, education, marriage, and money during the Regency era in Great Britain. Mr. Bennet of Longbourn estate has five daughters, but his property is entailed and can only be passed to a male heir. His wife also lacks an inheritance, so his family will be destitute upon his death. Thus, it is imperative that at least one of the girls marry well to support the others, which is a motivation that drives the plot. The novel revolves around the importance of marrying for love rather than money or social prestige, despite the communal pressure to make a wealthy match. Pride and Prejudice has consistently appeared near the top of lists of "most-loved books" among literary scholars and the reading public. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, with over 20 million copies sold, and has inspired many derivatives in modern literature. For more than a century, dramatic adaptations, reprints, unofficial sequels, films, and TV versions of Pride and Prejudice have portrayed the memorable characters and themes of the novel, reaching mass audiences.

113 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Iconic

4 stars

Pride And Prejudice is a difficult novel for me to review because, although this was my first reading of Austen's work, I have already encountered its essential storyline in televised adaptations and numerous other novels so I felt as though I was revisiting the book rather than coming to it fresh. I enjoyed the humour, especially Austen's partly-veiled observations on the predicament of women rendered useless without a husband and, of course, her wonderful characters. Austen had such a talent for observation and for just exaggerating foibles enough to make people such as Mrs Bennet and Lady Catherine ridiculous, but not unbelievable. Personally I wasn't convinced by Darcy's complete change of behaviour mid-book, but both he and Elizabeth have wonderfully sparkling conversations and spats with the great energy fairly leaping from the page. The repression of their social situation contrasts brilliantly with the obvious strength of their emotional attraction to …

I was interested to learn from Ian Littlewood's introduction that Pride And Prejudice was pretty much an overnight success upon its publication, but that it took some sixteen years and at least one drastic rewrite to get to that stage. The book was refused on its first submission in the late 1700s, even though Austen would have paid for the printing herself! An example to authors everywhere of the importance of not giving up!

Keno Goertz reviewed Pride and Prejudice by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Staff

Review of 'Pride and Prejudice' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

I finished this in agony. The dialogue is witty at times, but always at such a boring, inconsequential level. Most of the conversation is about how agreeable or disagreeable this or that person is, and while Austen tries to address this superficiality with the character of Mr. Darcy, his character arc is extremely superficial in its own way. Actually, this dickhead very predictably turns out to be a very kind, lovely and agreeable man once you get to know him.

The characters are boring. Mr. Darcy makes the very predictable transformation from total dickhead to precious darling in basically the snap of a finger. Elizabeth's only character trait seems being a smart-ass. Jane is a gullible fool. Mr. Collins is ugly and disagreeable. All Mrs. Bennet ever worries about is marrying her daughters. And Mr. Bennet doesn't ever give a shit about anything, except his daughter Lydia being a slut (at least the novel wants you to look at her like that). In fact, Lydia is perhaps the most interesting character of all, but the epilogue clearly shows that we're supposed to hate her for not marrying rich and trying to obtain money from her sisters who did better on that end.

If the one-dimensionality of the characters is supposed to be for the purposes of satire, well then Austen forgot to make it funny.

princeofspace reviewed Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1) by Garth Nix

Review of 'Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

An inversion of the typical fantasy tropes but just didn’t connect to this one.

Jens reviewed Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Review of "Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice" on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Uh, yeah, not my favorite book, sorry Austen fans! I had very high expectations given the book's remarkable reputation, but I just found it to be a very long description of people discussing marriages, while visiting each other.

What I liked best about Pride and Prejudice are its characters - the plot drags on, but it is carried by its colorful cast of ladies and gentlemen (literally), who almost come alive while reading their eloquent monologues and dialogues about the world around them. They alone are "worth" at least two stars of this rating!

I have to admit I had a lot of trouble with the kind of language. The narrator and almost all characters use long-winded sentences with carefully selected words to convey their opinions, and I found the language in this one particularly difficult to understand. There are definitely many "quotable" lines, particularly the famous opening line of …

Balise reviewed Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Review of "Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice" on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This was definitely a challenge to my English-reading level - which is quite obvious for the time it took me to read it ;) but oh-so-worth-it. I wasn't expecting it to be that funny, actually - and I'm also grateful that I "waited" long enough to read it that I was able to enjoy it (because I'm pretty sure the "funny" would have flown a few miles above my head 20 years ago :P )

Bridgman reviewed Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Review of "Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice" on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Elegant and everything you may have heard it was, but it requires so much concentration to read that reading it becomes a little bit of a chore for someone like me, who's been out of the academic realm for many years. But I'm shallow. Most appreciate it and I do, in concept. Isn't it great that you can read something written over two centuries ago and still connect with it?

Ikwezi reviewed Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1) by Garth Nix

Review of 'Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I sprinted through this one, aided by clear writing, a point-to-point plot with escalating opponents that felt very video game-like, and a rushed conclusion. There were a few too many familiar fantasy tropes for my taste, though, like (spoiler alert) the fallen, decaying kingdom in which it was set, the protagonist who was the last of a long line of protectors, the supporting character who was a bastard prince, the system of magic tied to the land, utilizing a power based on a single premise (the interface between life and death), and talking animals that were not actually animals - there was even an ancient Wall separating the peaceable human lands from the lurking evil beyond, a climactic battle set in the protagonist's erstwhile boarding school, and a horcrux to destroy. I was intrigued by the existence of electricity and motor vehicles south of the Wall, which teased the possibility …

zz reviewed Pride and Prejudice by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Staff

Review of 'Pride and Prejudice' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

One can say the book's title embodies its story, associating pride with Mr. Darcy and prejudice with Elizabeth. These two characters and their respective families are the main instruments which Jane Austen uses to describe, in a sometimes humorous fashion, some of the vices which predominated in English society back then.
Although not being particularly fond of her writing style and one or two characters being a bit annoying, Pride and Prejudice has great character development for both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth and it excelled in the dialog between some of its characters.

FrozenTrout reviewed Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1) by Garth Nix

Review of 'Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This was interesting. Two worlds border each other along the Wall: the Old Kingdom, where magic works but technology doesn't, and Ancelstierre, where the reverse is true. Sabriel is from the Old Kingdom, but has been raised in Ancelstierre. When her father dies, she must take up his mantel as the Abhorsen and cross the Wall in an attempt to rescue him from Death.

Gossamerchild reviewed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen

Review of 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' on 'Storygraph'

1 star

Terrible. Terrible. Simply terrible. I don't think I've ever said this of any of the books on here, but this was a terrible book and a disappointment. I know there's a recent trend to graphic novelize anything and everything, and I honestly thought making the P&P&Zombies novel into a graphic novel was a SUPERB idea. However, it was a major letdown. The illustrations were great, but not really in a graphic novel format. I'm not sure how to explain this-the characters were sometimes barely distinguishable and the illustrator was NOT good at expressing action or dialogue. He (Richards) actually managed to CONFUSE me. Sometimes a character would be having an internal monologue but there was no way to tell that; in other words, half the time I thought the characters were insane for talking to themselves or hard of hearing for not understanding how other characters were bashing him/her out loud. Other times the text was a lighter shade so you could tell that other characters weren't supposed to have heard that. It was weird. And whoever did the choosing of what text to keep did an abominably poor job. I'm pretty sure there was hardly anything left of Jane Austen's original writing (not completely true-the kiss-off scene between Darcy and Elizabeth is still pretty stellar. I exaggerate because the book bothered me so much), and what is left has been chopped to pieces. Some of the dialogue was so badly put together it seemed as though multiple conversations were happening at once. It was just sucky.

Rin reviewed Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1) by Garth Nix

Review of 'Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Fantastically dark story that proves that Garth Nix is teh win always. Important points: despite being a male, Mr. Nix writes a believable post-adolescent female and does so well, and his working the romance into this story was delicate, subtle, and just frickin' awesome.

okenwillow reviewed Orgueil et préjugés by Jane Austen

Review of 'Orgueil et préjugés' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Voilà bien longtemps que je souhaitais lire du Jane Austen. Le défi de Fashion en a été l’occasion. Je suis plutôt mitigée. Ma satisfaction durant la lecture a été plutôt fluctuante. Pendant un court moment je me suis demandé si j’allais pourvoir arriver au bout sans m’endormir. Plus tard, avançant dans ma lecture, ma curiosité commença à être titillée, et j’envisageais avec plaisir de finir le livre, tout en me disant que je n’en lirais pas d’autre de cet auteur (oui, auteur sans “e” à la fin). Finalement j’ai terminé ma lecture en espérant lire Raison et sentiments qui se trouve dans ma PAL. Tout ça pour dire que j’ai eu du mal à rentrer dans cet univers à première vue guindé et mièvre. Une fois dedans, on suit avec intérêt les petits soucis des personnages, tous très intéressants et travaillés. Jane Austen analyse et illustre à merveille ses contemporains, les place dans des situations bien de son époque, mais pris au piège de basses préoccupations matérielles relativement actuelles. Le langage est un délice, les rapports humains jubilatoires, l’humour omniprésent mais subtil. Malgré une lecture agréable, remarquablement intelligente et recherchée, je n’ai pas eu le coup de foudre pour Austen, que je trouve froide et peu passionnée, ou ses personnages. Je préfère une Brontë ou un Dickens, qui me toucheront bien plus.