Noe’s Comics Nook: Pride & Prejudice New Edition

Review

Often in our attempts to justify comics, we tell people that fostering someone’s love of comics is a “gateway” to reading more traditional books – something by Jane Austen perhaps. While I’m not a great fan of this line of reasoning (comics are just much real reading as anything else), I can relate to this argument with my reading of Manga Classics: Pride and Prejudice. How you ask? Well, because despite knowing the general plot, characters, and themes of the story, I have never read the original work! Dangerous to admit as a librarian, I know, but after much laughter and finding great delight in the misadventures of the young, attractive, wealthy characters in this adaptation, I find myself wanting to check out a copy of the original. Maybe that line of reasoning has some weight to it after all!

For those who are unfamiliar, Pride and Prejudice is a story of romance set in rural, early 19^th century England and follows a large cast of characters, centered on Elizabeth Bennet, as they navigate society’s pressures during that era – including discussions of inheritance, marriage, and reputation. The Bennet family estate is home to five daughters, none of whom can inherit due to its entailment (can only pass to a male heir), and as Mrs. Bennet has no inheritance either, upon Mr. Bennet’s death, all would be destitute – creating immense pressure to marry for wealth, rather than love. The story progresses as both Elizabeth and Jane Bennet court (or don’t) two wealthy suitors of quite different personalities: Fitzwilliam Darcy and Charles Bingley. It is the pairing of Darcy and Elizabeth that the novel takes its title, each struggling to overcome their primary character flaw to truly understand the other. Po Tse’s artwork adds a wonderful sense of setting and highlights just how delightfully funny the story can be through the character’s facial expressions.

Manga Classics adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is an engaging and fun way to experience all the drama, hardship, and love of the Bennet’s world – and explore the complexities of human nature along the way.

Elements of Story

Plot: When a young, wealthy, and most importantly single, Charles Bingley rents Netherfield Park, the Bennet household – home to five daughters – is never the same. Courtship, inheritance, reputation, and, ultimately, love are all on the line in Jane Austen’s masterpiece on human nature.

Characters: Fitzwilliam Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Bennet, Charles Bingley, Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Bennet, Lydia Bennet, Kitty Bennet, Mary Bennet, George Wickham, Caroline Bingley, William Lucas, Charlotte Lucas, William Collins, Edward Gardiner, Mrs. Gardiner, Georgiana Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Anne de Bourgh, Catherine de Bourgh

Major Settings: Hertfordshire (Longbourn, Netherfield Park, Lucas Lodge, Meryton), Derbyshire (Pemberley), London

Themes: Pride, Prejudice, Love, Reputation, Class, Family, Gender

Lesson Plan Idea Using Common Core Standards (CCS)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.7 – Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).

Directions: Pride and Prejudice has spawned perhaps hundreds of adaptations, including this Manga Classics edition, and that includes multiple film adaptations. For this assignment, once the class reading of the manga has completed, ask students to identify their favorite characters and describe why, citing both what they say and their “body language” from within the manga. Examples should be explicit and tied to specific pages/panels. Ask them to repeat this for their least favorite characters.

Once students have completed this description of the manga, hold an in-class viewing of the 2005 Pride & Prejudice directed by Joe Wright, staring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. When the film is finished and a short debrief of it held, ask students to now compare/contrast their favorite/least favorite character portrayals from the manga to this film adaptation and to answer the following questions:

1. Did your feelings toward a character(s) change from one version to the other? Why or why not?
2. How were the characters you chose similar across media? How were they different?
3. Did you find one version more relatable than the other? Why?
4. When reading a comic (manga), you have some control over the pace of the story, while on film you do not. Do you think the pace of the story impacted your appreciation or understanding?