Skip to main content

Review: Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding


This book is a classic of the "chick lit" genre- a book which no others has been able to touch. Bridget Jones, in a hectic year, experiences many of the things that real women face--work problems, men problems, friend problems, problems at home. But somehow Fielding manages to make all of it funny. Bridget is one of the wittiest, funniest characters I've run into in a long time. If you can believe it, in college, I read Bridget Jones's Diary for a Women Writers class!

This book is, of course, a takeoff of the Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice. However, by bringing her characters to a modern setting, Fielding somehow manages not to loose the original air that P&P possessed. The are the obvious Elizabeth and Darcy/Bridget and Darcy comparisons; the mother in Bridget Jones is a combination between Mrs. Bennet and Lydia (even down to running away with unsavory characters); and Daniel Cleaver as Mr. Wickham. Helen Fielding does not write at all like Jane Austen; but the ambience is roughly the same.

Comments

Lisa said…
I read this a couple weeks ago, and I have to say, I didn't really love it. I know it's supposed to be the beginning of all chicklit, but for me it didn't do it. I only saw the barest resemblance to P&P as well.
My review is here, if you're interested:
http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com/2008/07/bridget-joness-diary-by-helen-fielding.html
Anonymous said…
I read this several years ago and remembering thinking it was really funny. I read it before becoming involved with Austen books so, at the time, I didn't see the connection. Now that I read your review, it makes me want to reread this one now that I'm an Austen fan!
Anonymous said…
I saw the movie first because Colin Firth was in it! Then I completely forgot about the book. My friends have told me about the Pride and Prejudice connection and I'll pick it up for a fun read. :)
Anonymous said…
Have you seen the movie? It's pretty good (and has lots of eye candy - Colin Firth and Hugh Grant).
Anonymous said…
I read this a long time ago and I really enjoyed it. I haven't read any of the follow ups, but it did spark a short sprint of all British chik lit. :) The only other one I remember reading is Gemima J, which was okay.

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars

Six Degrees of Barbara Pym's Novels

This year seems to be The Year of Barbara Pym; I know some of you out there are involved in some kind of a readalong in honor of the 100th year of her birth. I’ve read most of her canon, with only The Sweet Dove Died, Civil to Strangers, An Academic Question, and Crampton Hodnet left to go (sadly). Barbara Pym’s novels feature very similar casts of characters: spinsters, clergymen, retirees, clerks, and anthropologists, with which she had direct experience. So it stands to reason that there would be overlaps in characters between the novels. You can trace that though the publication history of her books and therefore see how Pym onionizes her stories and characters. She adds layers onto layers, adding more details as her books progress. Some Tame Gazelle (1950): Archdeacon Hoccleve makes his first appearance. Excellent Women (1952): Archdeacon Hoccleve gives a sermon that is almost incomprehensible to Mildred Lathbury; Everard Bone understands it, however, and laughs