 So I'm gonna start a little mini series this year on this channel. This is the first episode and it's been led by two things. Two factors everyone. Number one, one of my goals this year is to read at least four classics which might not sound that difficult but for a galley who is like petrified reading classics because of how long they are, because of the like intimidation factor, many many many a thing. I never read- maybe I read one last year but I read one last year that was Emma by Jane Austen and I absolutely loved it. So I want to read more classics and also I've realised I own a shit ton of retellings. I own so many retellings but for the vast majority of these retellings I have never read the classic and so it kind of feels a little bit like oh what's the point in me reading this? Am I getting the full benefit of reading this retelling and the interesting thing the author is doing with the original story if I have not read the original story? Probably not. There's a few of my TBR that I think are loosely inspired by and that's a bit different but there's quite a lot of books that are like this is a retelling of this book and so in this little mini series I'm probably going to be doing about four or five episodes of this throughout the year. We are going to be reading a classic and then it's retelling and pitting them against one another and seeing which one's better but also seeing does the classic stand up? Is the classic an enjoyable read for me in the present day? Does the retelling do something interesting with the original and flip it in an interesting way? So that's what we're going to be doing and the classic that we're going to be reading for this first episode is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This is like a five-star prediction. I thought this was the best one to start off with because I have exhibited that I love Jane Austen's writing in Emma and I've spoken about it as many times we don't talk about it again but Pride and Prejudice is an incredibly formative story for me in terms of I read this when I was younger I have not read this probably in like 15 years but I read this when I was younger and the BBC adaptation Pride and Prejudice I watched every single time I was sick off school that is what I watched it it raised me. Mr Darcy? It's the reason I am who I am today is the reason that I love grump sunshine romances and so I thought this would be a really fun way to ease myself into this ease myself into reading more classics and probably be a great one to start with and I am so excited for the retelling we're going to be reading as well which is Pride and Premeditation by Terza Price this is a murder mystery this is just the perfect start to this series right it's like a little mini series this isn't a big series like a little mini series this is the perfect start because this is a murder mystery where Lizzie and Darcy are like both lawyers and they're both tasked with solving this crime I'm just so excited I cannot wait to do this video I think this is going to be such a fun experiment and then we've got a few really interesting ones let me know if there's any classics and retellings you think would be interesting I've got at least four I think on my TBR where I've got a classic and a retelling so that's going to be fun but in all these I'm going to read the classic first so I'm going to start Pride and Prejudice today I cannot promise I will not just get entirely carried away and like want to read this entire book today I've got a little bit of work to do I've got some patron prep for our quiz night to do but after that all I'm doing is reading this and I cannot promise I will not just read this entire thing today so shall we begin I will see once I've gotten a little bit of the way through maybe I'll check in when I'm like a hundred pages in but this is a story I know I feel like I know like the back of my hand so I'm very excited to see what it's like reading this for the first time in ages I feel like this is a treat I feel like this is like a wonderful spring day I feel like I'm living my best life I cannot wait to absolutely devour this book I am I can't describe to how excited I am so let's just dive in I feel so happy okay good evening friends I'm a hundred pages into Pride and Prejudice I'm loving it I'm loving it I'm loving it I am uh excuse me I'm loving it yeah yeah I'm gonna collapse no I don't I feel fine I've struck gold leaders I am obsessed with this already I do I have to give you a synopsis of Pride and Prejudice like do I have to like and be like this book is about for me it's so deeply ingrained into my consciousness as like Santa like the story of Santa like the story of Pride and Prejudice I just can't imagine like someone existing in the world not knowing what this is about we got Lizzie and Darcy Lizzie is living in her family she's got five that's her and four other sisters yeah her and four other sisters and basically their whole estate is being inherited by their cousin so like they when their father dies they're not in a good financial situation so their mother is wanting to marry them all off and Mr Binkley who's a rich dude comes to town and she's trying to pair off one of her daughters to him but he also has a friend called Mr Johnson they're coming from London into the countryside and Miss Darcy's even more rich but they hit him and Lizzie me and she sees him as incredibly prideful stuck up himself horrible man but like he's in love with her I believe in love and I just can't tell you how fun it is to be back with Jane's writing I am loving it it's interesting I feel like the narration in this is a little bit more distant perhaps not so much now but at the beginning I felt like it was a little bit more distant than than Emma just in terms of like how we're not as much in Lizzie's head as I feel like we're in Emma's head or none of them are written like from their perspective but like you have a certain degree of closeness from the omniscient narrator to the main character and I feel like we're not as in Lizzie's head as I was expecting again a lot of my preconceptions are through that BBC adaptation and in that I feel like we're definitely viewing everything through Lizzie's eyes almost and so it was just interesting being a bit distant from her in this book I feel like we're getting more of Darcy's perspective in the book like he's obsessed with her he is so in love and I feel like you get some elements in this show like him talking about her eyes like how nice her eyes are or whatever but in the show that he you kind of for a little while like you know he's in love with her obviously but like he's not showing it as much whereas in the book this man is lusting after this moment he is obsessed with her he is like indenial of his obsession so it's just interesting that different dynamic is very interesting but it's still so funny oh my god it's still so funny like Emma is arguably more of like a comedy from Jane Austen so that's like very funny in my opinion but there's still moments in this oh my god the characters of Mrs. Bennett of Mr. Collins like these are such funny Jane is sitting there at her little desk and her little chair and just writing the greatest works fiction ever to be written I'm I'm deadly serious I'm deadly serious it is brilliant English literature and I don't care about anybody it is it's literally it should be taught in schools the back and forth between them like they're little Lizzie and Darcy when they're chatting a little like teasing oh my god I love it it's so much fun knowing this story so well I can picture every single scene in my brain from the book and sometimes that's like a hindrance right but it's just so it's like coming home it's like a warm hug I love it so much I'm having so much fun reading it I'm genuinely obsessed it's gonna be fun start having the best time the best reading experience reading it it's just fascinating fascinating reading this book but just what oh guys I just love Jane Austen and I often wonder what it would be like if she'd live longer because she died so young like if we had more of her books because we only have a few right like we have Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, is there any more is there one I'm forgetting Mansfield Park and then we have Sanderton which is the one she started like but there's not many books when you think about it and I just wonder like what would the world be like if we had more Jane Austen books you know what I mean I'm gonna have to go back and read all of her shit aren't I I'm gonna have to go back and read like the stuff she wrote when she was a kid that's been published I'm just Janey I love yeah okay anyways I'm gonna go get ready for bed I don't know how much more I'll read tonight um I'll read a little bit more but oh my gosh oh my gosh guys it's just so I can't tell you how wonderful this is and it's so fun reading a classic when it's Janey you know what I mean I'm scared of doing this like I don't know if I'm gonna do another one of Jane Austen in this series I don't think so I'm scared of how the others will compare because I just love oh anyways I'll see you in the morning once I've read some more I'm gonna read this very fast I will finish this tomorrow like I can't I don't want to do anything other than read this book so um what a wonderful wonderful time I'm having oh my god I'm so happy morning everyone say hello to the cats they're sitting where I was gonna sit to fill that what are you doing I'm annoying you yeah okay good morning friends I come to tell you that I am about 260 to 170 pages through Pride and Prejudice I'm still loving it I'm having the best day reading this I'm genuinely having the time of my life I this is so much fun to read Jane Austen's writing is just impeccable the way that things are shown and not told to us the way there's all these different characters with like different motivations and different underlying characteristics is so interesting and it's so much fun to get to spend such a long amount of time with it this is you know I constantly think I am I'm gonna not shut up about the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice oh bless you but like that has six hours right to do this justice which I feel like it does there's a few moments where I'm thinking back to it I'm like I wouldn't spend as long in that situation whatever but you know how on earth does this Kira Knightley film that you all love I refuse to watch it by the way I'm not I refuse I've never seen it I refuse to watch it how does it how does it capture the depth of what's going on here oh you guys go drag me for this huh okay there's so many scenes there's such a passage of time there's so many moments have been how does it even begin to capture that I'm sorry I just don't understand how it's even possible we just got up to the point where I can mean can I give spoilers for Pride and Prejudice it is like 200 years old but like I want those of you haven't read it so still read it but we've got to a point where let me talk around it Darcy asks does he something that doesn't go very well and then she gets a letter from him and that letter is such an interesting turning point in the book because it really marks a shift maybe my mom were talking about this last night it marks the shift of what she thinks of him like her her opinion of Darcy is very much like and then this letter comes and it starts improving whereas his opinion of hers is kind of like steady maybe increasing things out of the book but like hers is a much more abrupt change and it's just interesting that having just happened oh my god the window cleaner's here can he see me filming I think he kind of can um this is awkward how humiliating and degrading so yeah anyways I think it's just a fascinating book I just wish we had more Jane Austen Birks like I need to sorry that's the window washing sound he's washing the upstairs windows he's like from a distance but I think he can I don't know he might not he probably can't see me anyways um no matter the fact that thousands of people online can see me if the window cleaner guy can see me that's more embarrassing than you know you guys watching the video anyways yeah I just wish we like how am I supposed to ration these like I've now I don't count having read persuasion because I just don't think I read it at a time when I appreciate enough I read it when I was first getting back into reading and what I did back then was I went to the charity shop and I just bought loads of like secondhand books that like I thought I should love it was before I'd really discovered booktube and I got like atonement persuasion wolf haul um like zady smith books like stuff that really isn't to my taste now or like some of it isn't to my taste and so I think I wasn't I was kind of like not in tune with what I was reading so I just think I read it at the wrong moment whereas now oh yeah I'm absolutely obsessed with this I mean my jay doesn't hear us like I've only really read two let's say and my own pride and prejudice like how am I supposed to to ration the rest of these for my entire life that's a real it's a real it's a real concern I'm really concerned about it um so yeah I'm definitely going to finish this today I'm going to go edit a little bit of this video now while I'm still like editing is a morning activity for me you know it's not an evening activity for me so I'm gonna edit some of this and then carry on reading this even though I don't want to edit I just want to carry on reading this but I know it's the responsible thing to do I have also received a parcel which I think is from one of my patrons Danielle on the reading comments last night she said that she'd sent me something but couldn't put a um I might as well get scissors couldn't put a message so and I got this parcel like the day before yesterday um and I was going to save it to open in a vlog because I figured I haven't ordered anything so I always like to open these in a vlog so that whoever sort sent it I'm trying to open these without scissors whoever sent it can see me open it um okay I think I'm in yeah I'm like Wonder Woman anyways what is it I knew just on the back I knew just on the back oh my god guys oh my gosh Danielle has sent me mislaid in parts half known by Shona McGuire oh my god I am so excited this is next to the way we're shooting the series oh my god Danielle thank you so much that is so beyond sweet of you I'm gonna have to go message her now that is so beyond sweet of you this is the next in the way we're shooting series there's Blemann dinosaurs baby oh my god I'm so excited and this one I think is more so than any we've had in the series really a continuation of the previous book a lot of them have been kind of I said stories but I really feel like this one is kind of gonna take a lot of what happened in the previous book and kind of continue on with it which is very exciting so oh my goodness I cannot wait through this thank you Danielle that is so kind oh my goodness okay that's so exciting it's one of my most exciting bits of the year oh my gosh oh isn't that exciting yeah I know I am gonna go finish Pride and Prejudice I'll let you know when I finished it but like this is gonna be five stars I'm having the most wonderful time reading this and I'm so glad that I'm doing a few of these videos this year to really prioritize reading classics because this is just I'm having the best time I'm having the best time I finished it I'm gonna get five stars I'm like I can't oh my god I'm like getting heart palpitations like are my chest hurts because of my love for this book oh my god you don't even you can't even begin to understand no I don't think you understand I'm upset I love this this is probably my favorite book of the year so far I don't think that's too crazy to say it like I haven't had many super standouts even the five star I had have been like some of them have been like you know just five stars this is my favorite book of the year so far I loved it but some of that is because of how nostalgic it is to me right I just can't believe that this book has traversed like 200 years and is still so pertinent to humanity and I said the same thing about Emma like I can't believe how touched in on like human nature Jane Austen is of course those elements are different like we don't we don't marry the same and like whatever but it's the core of how we feel and how we love and how we react to things leave the language of it I just can't I can't believe it I loved it so much you guys I just it was such an incredible reading experience I just adored it I love it and Jane Austen oh my god some of the one-liners that lady pulls out are absolutely heart wrenching like she'll like Mr Darcy will say something and I'll just like me whenever Mr Darcy tells Lizzie he loves her that was beautiful you did such a good job of expressing yourself oh my god like how does she do it how does she write like that like towards the end there were little moments there were little lines I was just like oh my giddy aunt did not expect to be feeling this much I think it's incredible I don't want to say the writing's incredible Jane Austen the woman that you are I'm gonna get even deeper into my Jane Austen obsession another thing I do think is interesting about this is I think it shows Lizzie in a different way than I've experienced so why does this camera always go pink in this this angle um it showed Lizzie in a perspective I didn't experience her before I feel like in the show you're you're very much from her vantage point so she's always right but I saw the prejudice side of it and of course that's always there but I really did see you know spoiler alert Mr Darcy's a pride and she's the prejudice and um I really saw that from her at this time and I thought that was very interesting I love the sister relationship to her and Jane's relationship I love I love you know also you see I think in the show you see Mr Bennet as like oh my god he is like the good parent and Mrs Bennet as the bad parent but like Mrs Bennet has a reason for being so desperate to want to get their daughters married it's because arguably Mr Bennet was kind of irresponsible with preparing them for a stable financial future so I think it's just interesting to see an even more three-dimensional angle of these characters than what I've seen before and at the end the end of the last chapter is like uh you know at the end of the film it's like where they are now they'll be like a line on where or at the end of a tv show like where everyone is now like there's a little line for everyone in the story like how they how they are at the end of the book or in the years to come and I love that like a little Jane is the inventor did anyone do that before her I've connected the two dots you didn't connect shit but I've connected them did she invent the like where are they now moment I'm sure someone did that before her but in my mind Jane is the earliest example I've seen and thus she is the inventor I love women in STEM I adore to this I adore to this I don't know what else there is to say I cannot recommend this enough I love Jane Austen I love Jane Austen and now I'm realizing perhaps when I love the classics it's not exactly fair on the retelling I'm not going to judge these on the same you know the same purposes because I try to do very different things um this isn't trying to be you know a work of fiction that lasts hundreds of years well I know there's a prize might be trying to do that but what it is more trying to do is pay homage and and share the love of something we all love right that's why we like retellings or or to take the concepts in a not maybe not in this example but to take the concepts in a classic and twist them and reimagine them right we tellings always try to do something different so I'm not going to try and judge this on the same part necessarily but I am still really really excited to start I'm going to start tonight I'm going to dive straight in and I'll let you know when I'm a little bit the way through what I'm thinking but I feel like this is such a fun way to read to read a classic and then read the retelling I'm so excited to experience this having just experienced the entirety of this and it be so fresh in my brain it feels like when you read a series back to back right it's like such a fun reading experience and at the end of the day really should be fun reading should be fun so I'm gonna start this tonight I think this is going to be a pretty quick read so I've wanted to read this for so so long so I'm so excited to be finally getting to it oh my goodness good morning friends I am about halfway through Pride and Premeditation by Terza Price and I have some thoughts oh no this has now gone downhill it's still set in the regency era as far as I can tell and Lizzie wants to work at her father's law firm but because she's a girl Mr Collins is set to inherit after him and like she is not really getting a chance so she's trying to prove herself by looking into this case where Mr Hurst who if you remember from Pride and Prejudice he is the husband of one of Mr Bingley's sisters has been murdered and Mr Bingley has been arrested for the murder very dramatic she goes to try and wants to represent him but it turns out he is being represented by Mr Darcy who is a young man working at his father's law firm and so Lizzie is trying to solve this mystery and prove herself and like run-ins with Mr Darcy and etc etc okay I think this is a really fun young YA version of what it is right I'm having an all right time reading it I'm enjoying it it's a very quick read I think the person I'd recommend this to most is someone who's like 13 and has never read Pride and Prejudice but is kind of interested in the story because I remember when I was young when I was like 11 12 I used to read like YA like romance contemporaries almost but like modern-day retellings of Jane Austen I love that series I just I completely forgot about that series but I remember I really enjoyed that and so I think this is like on a similar vein where it's fairly young YA it's introducing people to the story but also I would recommend it if you read Pride and Prejudice recently right I think it's got a lot of interesting callbacks it's got a lot of interesting references there's certain scenes that are being replicated in very imaginative and very interesting ways so I think it's also fun to read if you've read it fairly recently and like can appreciate the kind of or if you know just the story really well and you could appreciate the kind of all the references and there's some really minor references some really nice little nods to stuff but I do have a couple problems with it A there's like for me no chemistry between Lizzie and Darcy and this or nothing building between them having read Pride and Prejudice I just don't know if it's fair to read this exactly straight after reading Pride and Prejudice because there's just nothing building between them for me with push me up against the wall give me a kiss then I might get excited Pride and Prejudice has such a wonderful arc of how you're seeing both of their feelings towards one other build and change and the kind of the way the letter happens at the midpoint etc etc we we're not having any of that right and there's also I think there's a lot of aspects that make Pride and Prejudice Pride and Prejudice that aren't I think I saw a Goodreads review referring to this as well that aren't in this like there's nothing between Mr. Bingley and Jane there's the letter isn't happening so I'm just a bit like you know there's certain elements that I think this is like not trying to follow the story beat for beat which we know different retailers are gonna do different things right some are gonna go for like a real faithful plot re-adaptation right this is not going for that it's basically almost like a fan fiction obviously like an elevated one but like they're taking the characters they're taking parts of the story and like reimagining it right it's like when you'd write I don't know other other fan fiction other fan fiction often just takes the characters and puts them in an entirely new situation that's kind of what this feels like and I just don't know if I love that having just read Pride and Prejudice and loving it so much I just feel like something's lacking right I'm not out here going oh you have to follow that plot beat for beat because I also think that could be boring right I sometimes don't like that when it feels predictable at least this doesn't feel predictable but I just don't know if it's truly feeling like Pride and Prejudice to me I don't feel like Lizzie really feels like Lizzie I don't feel like Darcy really feels like Darcy and I feel like the book is trying to do two things at once I appreciate there's a murder mystery in this but I think it's trying to both be referential of Pride and Prejudice and have a murder mystery and it's kind of not doing them either of them really well I'm not like I appreciate there's a murder mystery but am I like super invested in it and do I think that there's been a lot of like clues or like elements of mystery no I feel like the mystery has kind of been forgotten whilst it's also trying to like build on certain character relationships that build on certain plot beats that Pride and Prejudice has but also not doing that very well like I feel like it's not doing either of them perfectly so I am enjoying it but I'm not loving it and I have a few issues with it so at the moment I'd say it's maybe like a 3.5 in terms of enjoyment I'm gonna try and read the second half a lot quicker I read the first half mainly through the audiobook and I'm gonna try and read the second half physically so I read it a lot quicker and maybe that will improve my reading experience of it a little bit so we shall see we shall see I'm gonna try and read as much as I can and then I'll check in with you later today on my thoughts of this one and how it compares to Pride and Prejudice it's like a couple hours later I literally just went and sat out in the garden and finished this and here's the thing I'm still gonna give it a 3.5 but when I spent you in the last clip it was a 3.5 leaning towards a 3 and now it's a 3.5 leaning towards a 4 so now it's getting rounded up on Goodreads I much preferred the second half of this the critique I had of like it not doing the Pride and Prejudice aspect very well not doing the murder mystery aspect very well I felt like it really came together in the second half and it had done enough kind of like setting up of both in the first half to really motor with both whoa to really motor with both of those in the second half and that was really the biggest thing I noticed was like okay the mystery really came together I think the way that the mystery kind of played out was very sophisticated and was very interesting it's very interesting you know if you run for a prejudice it's very interesting who the um culprit or culprits end up being you naughty naughty you teasing me you naughty naughty I think I am gonna continue on this series well there's technically it's like two series that spawned from this there's two more in this like Jane Austen books as murder mystery retellings I think there's a sense and sensibility in a mansford park one so I've got to read them before I can read that but then there's also like a Darcy and Lizzie continuation series from this and I think I am going to give them both a go do I think this is like the best thing I've ever read no but I had a really fun time reading it and I think if you are a fan of Pride and Prejudice I do think this would be a book that's an enjoyable treat but is it as good as the classic in this case no in this case no not for me personally but I don't think this is trying to be right like we said and in this series I think we'll uncover this more but some retellings are trying to like do something new and take that story and twist it and make it more and this is really just trying to share in the love and sharing the appreciation and like just just it's for fans of Pride and Prejudice right I don't think it's trying to like one up it I think it's for fans of that and trying to like appreciate it but we found my favorite book of the year so far with this book oh my goodness I love it I love it so much I'm like is there a world in which I can make Tom read this I've tried to make him watch the BBC adaptation many times and we never like get out far I think he's watched like an episode or two but like I don't know if he gets it you know but like I just think Jane Austen is the best writer to ever have existed. I absolutely loved it and it was very interesting I'm excited to do this a few more times with some other classics reading the classic and then reading and retelling because it's such an interesting lens to read this through I do think the reading experience is different versus like when you've read this for the first time it's your favorite book of the year so far and it's the classic itself it's quite difficult for this to live up to but I think it's still a fun reading experience to read the retelling straight after but yeah I am gonna give the rest of the series a go is it like you know am I like whoa I haven't started any series so far this year that I'm continuing that I'm like blown away by they've both been it was this and everyone in my family has killed someone they're both like okay I can I'm gonna continue on to see where this goes but I haven't started any series this year yet where I'm like whoa oh my god but I guess I'm just trying to make I'm making more progress in series than I'm starting this yeah so you know anyways I hope you guys enjoyed this little video reading a classic and reading retelling I cannot recommend picking this bad boy up enough if you are interested I already want to reread it I'm like what else what am I gonna read for the rest of like what am I gonna read next that could possibly compare but I hope you guys enjoyed this video if you got to the end of the video comment a love heart emoji for a love that's in the air and I'll see you very soon another one bye