Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition

Sir Thomas Lawrence, Margaret, Countess of Blessing, 1822

By Jane Austin, ed. by Patricia Meyer Spacks, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2010

Ah, what a glorious edition of Pride and Prejudice!  This is a richly illustrated and lavishly annotated edition of a novel that is, by now, almost too famous for its own good.  I am so familiar with the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy through movies and the novel itself that I wasn't sure what I could gain from rereading Austin's tale.  Spacks is a wonderful companion for the reader.  The notes summarize scholarly debate without losing site of what may interest the general reader.  It was a real pleasure to read P&P slowly and carefully with Spacks as my guide.