PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Jane Austen's classic novel about Elizabeth Bennett, her sisters, and their movement toward marriage in Regency England is richly presented by Irene Sutcliffe. She makes Mrs. Bennett, the girls' flighty mother, strident and grating--just the sort of tone that must have annoyed Mr. Bennett these many years and made his daughter, the intelligent, self-possessed Elizabeth, the greatest source of his pleasure. When the satire gives way to Austen's thoughtful romantic comedy, Sutcliffe's gravity conveys the importance of the eventual humbling and self-awareness attained by Elizabeth and her intended, Fitzwilliam Darcy. G.H. [Published: OCT/NOV 98]