When I was young and had to do literature in school, classics were never a favourite of mine. William Shakespeare brought terror and my preference for modern novels stopped me from diving into Jane Austen's books and programs made about the times prior to the 20th Century were a definitely no no. So, you can tell, I did not watch much television programs nor movies.

All this changed last year as I went in search of books, and chanced upon Pride and Prejudice. I thought I have finally come of age and may understand the story and context without being terrorised by the English language. To cut a long story short, I fell in love with the book and became an Austen fan. Since I did not have the privilege of watching Pride and Prejudice while it was on the tele, I could not resist getting a copy of it on DVD.

This is the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice which is very close to the book, compared to the 1940's version starring Lawrence Oliver and Greer Garson. Here, Colin Firth was Mr. Darcy while Jennifer Ehle was Elizabeth Bennet.

For those who have not seen this series, this is a typically love story. A wealthy man, Mr. Darcy, insulted a lady, Elizabeth, by refusing to dance with her. But gradually he fell in love with her even though he felt that she was beneath him. She refused him the first time, stating the reasons being his arrogance and his persuading his friend from engaging her sister. Later, she realised her mistake because she was prejudiced against him (because of a second man in the love triangle) or was it that her pride was hurt?!? I don't know, but you get the drift.

For those who have seen the series on BBC, you will agree that this version was very well done. Not only did it follow the book closely, the scenery, photography, costumes, houses, furniture etc were all made to look authentic and realistic. The dialogues! I have often despair that adaptations fell short of the books because the dialogues were dissimilar and did not convey the meanings. In this case, much of the dialogues were straight out of the book! My imaginative mind never stops churning while I ache for both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy and got upset at Lydia.

Someone asked how was the acting, and I have to say, Colin Firth was just like him, very handsome, very fierce and brought Mr. Darcy to life as the conceited arrogant rich man while Jennifer Ehle was brilliant as Elizabeth. My husband said she ennounciated very well (whatever that means). I guess that meant she didn't mumble. I enjoyed watching Julia Sawalha as Lydia, it was a change from the goody daughter in Absolutely Fabulous. I think it would be unfair to compare the book and the movie because the book allows your imagination to run overtime while the movie brought life to the book. I prefer to consider the DVD as an extra enhancement to the enjoyment of the book.

As an educational tool, I would recommend this series as an introduction, especially for the uninitiated to English literature, or English as a second language. It helps to 'kick-start' those of us who had never read an Austen book nor did not think century-old love story can be as funky as 'When Harry met Sally', or 'You've got mail'.

One caveat, its 5 hours long. So be prepared for a long day in front of the tv or you will need to have the self-control to watch it over a few days. Perfect for those of us down with the cold and flu, stay
home, keep warm and watch this!

The price is currently at 24.59 pounds at the BBC shop on www.bbcshop.com. This version of the DVD is for region 2 and 4. The DVD set contains 2 dvds, containing the entire series in 5 hours. In addition, it has biographies of the main actors and actresses as well as a short documentary of the series-making process. For those of us in the USA and Canada (requiring region 1), amazon.com is selling it for $29.96.