Wintonbury Book Discussion (Virtual) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Discussion with Professor Joan Ray

We will be discussing Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Joining us will be Joan Ray, PhD, Professor Emerita, English of University of Colorado, Colorodo Springs.

Joan Ray is the only 3-term President of the Jane Austen Society of North America (2000-2006) and after that (2006-2016), President of the North American Friends of Chawton House Library (Chawton House, once owned by Jane’s brother and which she called “The Great House” when she dined there); author of numerous articles on Jane Austen, as well as Jane Austen for Dummies (Wiley), Simply Austen (Great Lives Series), and the 2-volume reference work (loaded with footnotes) Dictionary of Literary Biography, Jane Austen (Gale Group, the go-to volumes for Austen scholars and found in almost all University Library Reference Rooms and the British Library’s Humanities Reference Room).