Written and published a mere 200 or so years ago, this original enemies to lovers trope is brought to you by Jane Austen. It is difficult to read and understand at times due to the time period in which it was written, but oh, how I love this book! And the movie with Keira Knightley isn’t so bad either. The fancy old-fashioned words and the lyrical prose are a joy to read after reading modern novels. It leads you on a reading journey deep into an old world fairy tale from long ago.
The perfectly imperfect couple, Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy, take a while to work out their differences but once they do, their love is forever.
Most everyone has heard at least one or two of the most famous lines well known to this novel. One example is the opening line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” I love all the famous lines from this book but while I was reading, I found a few more I enjoyed as well:
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?
Reflection must be reserved for solitary hours; whenever she was alone, she gave way to it as the greatest relief; and not a day went by without a solitary walk, in which she might indulge in all the delight of unpleasant recollections.
Her spirits were in high flutter
Elizabeth’s mind was too full for conversation
And they parted at last with mutual civility, and possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again
Reading this novel is an experience you likely will never forget!