Eligible is a modern interpretation of Pride and Prejudice. Now, I am going to say right at the beginning, spoiler alert, spoiler alert, spoiler alert, because I plan to talk about the end of the book, or the middle of the book, or all parts of the book. So if you don't want to know what happens in the book, don't read anymore.
I am a huge Jane Austen fan and a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice. It's probably my favorite Jane Austen novel, although how can you pick just one? I was really excited to read this book. I heard good things and I was not disappointed. I definitely was on the lookout for bad plot points. Someone had warned me that the story sometimes worked a little too hard to fit into the premise of Pride and Prejudice. And to a certain extent I think that's true, although I thought some of the ways they pulled in things like reality TV or - spoiler alert, spoiler alert, don't read ahead - a transgender person was interesting.
I love the way that they ended with Mary speaking. I thought that was great - although now it makes me want to go back and read Pride and Prejudice and know if that book ends that way. Sometimes the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice runs into my head and I can't remember if it's the end of the movie or the end of the book. Did that happen to anyone else? I mean, why wouldn't it happen? I will totally admit that in the book, Eligible, the Fitzwilliam Darcy character was played by, of course, Colin Firth. So I don't even know if she took the time to describe what he looked like because in my head he looks like Colin Firth. He will always look like Colin Firth and anyone named Darcy will, of course, always look like Colin Firth.
So getting back to the story, the one thing that I found to be truly astounding was the fact that Mrs. ... her name escapes me ... was truly a horrible, horrible person. I don't know if she was a horrible person in the book, Pride and Prejudice, and just the way she transfers over she turns into a horrible person, or if this is new to this book. But Mrs. so-and-so is a straight-up racist-bigot, uppity, richie-rich, not nice person in this book. And I think it was totally appropriate because that's probably the way she really was, and I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to read Pride and Prejudice the same way without picturing her as this really awful person. I think the rest of the characters were fairly consistent. I enjoyed the change and evolution that they took to make them more modern. I enjoyed them completely. But I just had to laugh at how horrible, truly horrible, she was.
So I would highly suggest the book. I think it's a great book if you're a Pride and Prejudice fan. I think it would probably be a great book if you're not a Pride and Prejudice fan - although I would love to hear somebody who doesn't know the Pride and Prejudice story at all and reads the book, and see if it can stand on its own as book without knowing the story. Either way, it gave me a wonderful outlet to enjoy Colin Firth again. It inspired me to read Pride and Prejudice again, of course, because it takes just about nothing to encourage me to read Pride and Prejudice again. I truly loved it.