"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

An audio book. Some well-regarded writers regularly re-read this. I've never read it. Having now read some chapters I can't yet find much to like.

Mr and Mrs Bennet have 5 daughters. The live in a Hertfordshire village. The family wealth will go to a male relative, Collins. Mrs Bennet wants to marry her girls off. There's Jane (the eldest), Lizzie (the main character), Mary (plain - a nerd), Kitty and Lydia, the youngest. The latter 2 are considered shallow by their father - they prefer soldiers to rich men. Mr Darcy isn't obviously pleasant - he seems too proud. Mr Bingley, new to the area, seem nicer. He has sisters.

There's banter - is humility really boastfulness? Is it carelessness of taste? Does Lizzie belittle women in general to elevate herself in comparison? Who fancies whom?

Wickam tells Lizzie that Darcey treated him badly. In conversation, Lizzie goes meta when talking to Darcie, talking about how such conversations should be conducted.

Collins arrives and thinks about proposing to Jane, but her mother says she's already spoken for, so he proposes to Lizzie. She rejects him. Her mother doesn't want to talk to her again. Her father wouldn't have talked to her again had she married him. Collins proposes to Charlotte, Lizzie's best friend. She accepts. A few months later Lizzie stays in London for 6 weeks with the married couple. She's surprised that Charlotte is satisfied. She meets bossy Lady Katherine who knows what's best for everybody.

Darcy proposes to Lizzie who rejects him. She thinks that he's stopped Jane's marriage and has been unkind to Wickam. Darcy defends himself, giving evidence to support his case, evidence that makes Lizzie think that she's been a poor judge of character.

Jane, nearly 23, is getting old. Lizzy tells Jane what Darcy said about Wickam but not about the reasons for her hoped for engagement being called off. Lizzie knows that her parents married too young. Her father finds her mother's ignorance amusing, but love has gone.

Lizzie finds herself near Darcy's main house. Darcy's maid tells Lizzie that he was a pleasant child. She thinks that people think him proud but he's short of words rather than lofty. Lydia follows the soldiers to Brighton, then disappears with Wickam. Her uncle contacts her father saying that he's brokered a deal - Wickam and Lydia will marry as long as her father promises some money. Her father hears that Wickam owes £1000 in gambling debts in Brighton alone. He suspects that the uncle is helping out financially without saying. They find out that Darcy was at the wedding and had given the money. Lizzie thinks he did it for her sake. The couple (Lydia's 16) go to live in Newcastle. Her mother's happy.

Jane and Bingley get back together. On hearing that Darcy and Lizzie might be getting together, Lady Katherine tells Lizzie that it would be a disgrace. Lizzie stands up for herself but later can see her point of view. Darcy proposes. Lizzie wishes she hadn't expressed her initial views about him so clearly - she has some backtracking to do. She asks him what initially attracted him to her (her impertinence?) and why he'd sometimes reacted coldly in the past. Lydia asks Lizzie for money.

I'm not convinced.