Pride & Prejudice

"She had dressed with more than usual care, and prepared in the highest spirits for the conquest of all that remained unsubdued of his heart, trusting that it was not more than might be won in the course of an evening."

It's been a long time since the last time I read Pride and Prejudice - most of my ideas about it are really from adaptations (the movies, Lizzie Bennet Diaries), not the book. The adaptations take a more charitable approach to Elizabeth - she might be judgmental, but you never really get the sense that she's prideful. Austen makes this much clearer (see the above quote). She's still a lovable character, but far more human than the spunky proto-feminist I remembered (and by "remembered," I suppose I mean "cobbled together from multiple sources").

I also tend to forget how downright disdainful Austen is toward so many of her characters. And not the wicked ones. The stupid ones and the silly ones seem to be the prime targets of her disdain. I think it's easy for people who haven't really given Austen a chance to write her books off as fluffy romances, but they're much darker than they seem at first glance. There are moments in her books that resemble, more than anything, modern cringe comedy, where the way she presents characters is funny in an uncomfortable way, a way that makes you question, as you laugh, exactly what kind of person laughs at such nastiness.