Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
The popular 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice (source).
Austen was child number seven in a family of eight, which suddenly makes the Bennet family's reproductive tendencies look modest. She also never married (source).
Austen's father was a rector (a member of the clergy), but not the basis of Mr. Collins's character. (source)
Austen began writing at a very early age, and it helped that her entire family loved to act—she could see her work actually being performed (source).
GameZebo created a casual game based on Pride and Prejudice called Matches & Matrimony. Apparently it's kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Learn more about it here.
Austen in love? There's been a lot of recent speculation about the actual mystery man that stole Jane Austen's heart (and we're not talking about James McAvoy in Becoming Jane). Read all about it here.
Many of the locations Austen mentions in Pride and Prejudice are invented, but Derbyshire is real. It's been the setting for two adaptations of the novel, and Jane Austen allegedly based Pemberley on a real-life Derbyshire estate: Chatsworth (source).
One of the reasons we love Pride and Prejudice so much is that it shows that women could be, well, different from each other. Crazy! Okay, it doesn't seem like much of a brain snack: but consider these lines from Alexander Pope's "Epistle to a Lady," written in 1743: "Most women have no characters at all/ Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear/ And best distinguished by black, brown, or fair" (source). Translation? Women are too dumb to have personalities, and the only way to tell them apart is by their hair color. We can almost hear Austen rolling her eyes.