The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, edited by David M. Shapard
Classic
These editions are, quite simply, the Holy Grail of annotated Austen novels.
Historical context, illustrations, literary comments and analysis, as well as definitions and clarifications of words we might now use differently fill this beautiful volume. The book is structured so that left pages feature the novel, and right pages present notes and illustrations correspondingly, for each and every page.
These notes enrich the reading experience to a whole new degree, often explaining details that the contemporary reader of Austen would’ve immediately picked up on, but that the modern reader would not easily catch.
For instance, there is a scene in which Darcy, Georgiana and Bingley all visit Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle; the narrator quickly mentions that they stayed with them “above half an hour”, which I always took for a simple descriptive detail. However, a note explains that this was an unusually long time for visits of introduction, habitually lasting fifteen minutes: this denoted a particular interest in Elizabeth by the visitors.
It is little informative notes like this, as well as the beautiful illustrations providing accurate visuals (of people, their fashion, furniture, rooms, houses, streets, activities…), that make the experience of reading an Austen novel in this edition much more vivid to the contemporary reader. I can’t recommend it enough!
