And the winner is…Pride and Prejudice!
The listeners of BBC Radio 4’s “Woman’s Hour” have voted Pride and Prejudice as the book that has most changed the way they see themselves, topping Jane Eyre and To Kill A Mockingbird, among others.
Brick Lane author and champion of Pride and Prejudice Monica Ali said: “If ever we wished to identify with a character, it must be Lizzie. (sic)
“She’s quick witted, lively, self assured and yet so infallibly human and she takes us on that most important journey - the path to self knowledge”.
As an aside, we would like to mention that Harper Lee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the Editrix’s favorite non-Jane Austen book, To Kill A Mockingbird, is a Friend of Jane.
Miss Lee believes “that there is something universal in this little world, something decent to be said for it, and something to lament in its passing.” Her chief literary debt is to Jane Austen, “writing, cameo-like, in that little corner of the world of hers and making it universal.”
December 9th, 2004 at 4:29 pm
[...] B. @ 11:12 am
The Guardian publishes two reactions to Pride and Prejudice being chosen by listeners of BBC Radio 4 Woman [...]
December 12th, 2004 at 3:54 pm
[...] e Observer has weighed in on the BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour poll on the ‘book that changed your life’. Ms. Odone [...]