Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Title/Author: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Publisher/Date published: Penguin Classics, first published in 1813
How I got this book: how can I call myself a booklover if I don't even have a copy of my favourite book in the house? I bought it.
Why I read this book: I felt like revisiting my old friends of Longbourn, Netherfield and Pemberley, it's been a while.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

With this line starts my favourite book of all time. I'm sure all of you are familiar with the story one way or the other, even if you haven't read the book. But still, a short summary:
The Bennets are a family with 5 daughters, living at the family estate Longbourn. With 5 girls, Mrs. Bennet has a considerable amount of anxiety about seeing them all married to a respectable (and hopefully a wealthy) man. When an amiable young man named Mr. Bingley rents the house near them, she has high hopes of marrying one of her daughters off to him. But Mr. Bingley doesn't come to the neighbourhood by himself, he brings with him a friend, Mr. Darcy, who has a less pleasing disposition than his friend does. Elizabeth, the second eldest daughter, clashes with him on more than one occasion and in this lies the true lovestory.

I rant about this book every chance I get and since I reread it last week, I thought it would be as good a time as any to do it again.
This book has been my favourite since I first read it when I was 14 or 15. And it gets better every time I read it. I love reading new books, but revisiting this one that I already knew I'd love again is so relaxing and I was glad to find that I hadn't prettied it up in my head, it really is THAT good.

Miss Austen tells the story of a family of 7 with such detail and wit, I really feel I know all of them intimately. And everyone has their own fleshed out character, which I really love. She has a lot of humour and the story flows brilliantly. Sure, I live for the scenes with both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, but the rest of the story is beautiful as well.

I have talked again and again of how I love Elizabeth, she is an intelligent, strong woman. Mr. Darcy is my ultimate bookcrush, he's so noble and handsome and just dreamy. I also love Mr. Bennet, he's sarcastic and I love his humour.

I have always thought that classics such as this and for example Jane Eyre have had so much influence on romance in novels and especially in romantic comedies. A lot of times you can lead the relationship of the characters back to a couple of patterns and I'm always looking for a fresh spin on these in stories.

I've seen both the BBC series and the movie adaptation from 2005 and personally, while the BBC version is more true to the book, I enjoy watching the more recent movie more (though of course, the plot is not affected by the changes). I enjoy the whole feeling of it more somehow.
This may or may not also be influenced by my finding Matthew MacFadyen more attractive...

My rating: there is no rating for my favourite book ever, the stars are off the chart for this one.

I'm going ahead and assuming a lot of you have read this book, if so, what did you think? Loved it/not so impressed/think it's overrated? And for those who have seen the movie/tv series: how do you think it compares to the book?

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Title/Author: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Publisher/Date published: Avon Books, first published in 1938
How I got this book: I bought it.
Why I read this book: I'd heard great things about it and it sounded like something that would be right up my alley.

Goodreads summary: ""Last Night I Dreamt I Went To Manderley Again."
So the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter remembered the chilling events that led her down the turning drive past the beeches, white and naked, to the isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast. With a husband she barely knew, the young bride arrived at this immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten... Her suite of rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant - the sinister Mrs. Danvers - still loyal. And as an eerie presentiment of evil tightened around her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter began her search for the real fate of Rebecca... For the secrets of Manderley."

First of all let me say I absolutely LOVED this book, if I sound like I'm gushing, it's because I'm so happy at having found and read this book!
Also, I'll refer to the main character as MC, because her name is never revealed and I don't know what else to call her.

Our MC is a young woman, who is a companion to and older woman, the only way she has of supporting herself after her father died and having no other relatives. She's travelled with this woman to Monte Carlo, where she meets Maxim de Winter, a man whose wife died a year ago. He's the owner of a huge estate called Manderley and has people wondering who he will marry to replace the beautiful Rebecca, his first wife. He develops an interest for MC and takes her out in his car every morning while the woman she's there with is in bed with the flu. After she gets better, she wants to go back to New York and upon hearing this, Maxim proposes to our MC.

After their honeymoon, they arrive at Manderley, which is a beautiful place, but MC doesn't really feel at home there. The servants all knew and loved Rebecca and she feels as if everyone is comparing them, with MC always coming up short. Even one of the dogs seems to dismiss her for not being her old mistress.
MC can't really find her way, she's shy about meeting the people who live near and Maxim seems different from their time in Monte Carlo and after that their honeymoon in Italy. And there's the creepy servant Mrs. Danvers to deal with, who knew Rebecca since she was a child and loved her very much. She even keeps the rooms Rebecca used in exactly the same state as they were the night the died. Our MC is afraid of this woman and doesn't want to upset her.

The only one she can confide in is Frank Crawley, a man who works for Maxim. Struggling with her marriage and her new life, will she ever be free from the ghost of Rebecca who manages to influence life so much even when she's dead herself?

The setting of Manderley was perfect for this book! It was so huge that you were practically isolated from the rest of the world and I felt MC's loneliness. The house was so big that you could get lost in it and MC does get lost at first and discovers the chambers that used to be Rebecca's. Imagine the horror at finding a shrine to a dead woman! Even when the new mistress of the house has moved in, everything remains the same as if she went on living, her favourite food is still eaten and the rooms she decorated haven't been altered. Everyone in the neighbourhood raves about her beauty, her grace, her parties, her friendliness.. I felt for our MC being compared to some sort of saint.

Mrs. Danvers was just evil, the woman seemed obsessed with Rebecca and was trying her hardest to make life difficult for MC. Even going as far as trying to convince her to commit suicide! Their was something really creepy about her all consuming love for a child she watched grow into a woman, it didn't seem natural.

I thought it was heartbreaking watching the relationship between Maxim and MC, because she was so convinced he could never love her after having been married to Rebecca. And Maxim didn't really do much to prove her wrong, treating her more like a child than his wife.

The twists in the story were so wonderful! I didn't see them coming, even though I expected there to be many, many secrets. At the beginning of the book we're told that at least our MC doesn't live at Manderley anymore, but I couldn't figure out until right before the ending why that was and what had happened.

The story was so dark and mysterious! I cried with our MC in her moments of despair and felt the gloom of the place and her loneliness. Every lover of Jane Eyre should read this book, I thought it was amazing and it's one to add to my list of favourites. I almost read it in one go because I could just not put it down!

My rating: 5+ stars.