It's hard to understand all the brouhaha over this book! The story is Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". The presentation as the-misadventures-of-the-comic-heroine was perfected over 20 years ago by Jilly Cooper. Jane Austen is better. Jilly Cooper is better. This would be one of the few cases I have seen where the movie is better than the book. And that's pretty darn sad.