E is for — Elizabeth Bennett from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Eliza Bennett is my kind of heroine. She’s intelligent, witty, tart-tongued, and not brainlessly boy-crazy like some of her younger sisters. I enjoy her spirited banter with the haughty Mr. Darcy. I always wished that I could be so good with a repartee. I love the story, and the slow transformation of their opinions of each other never gets old.

Truth be told, I love all of Jane Austen’s major novels. (I haven’t read any of her shorter works.) Pride and Prejudice is my favorite, followed by Sense and Sensibility, the gothic Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and Emma. I own four video versions of Pride and Prejudice, and, Colin Firth’s wet shirt notwithstanding, I like the BBC production with Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul the best. Maybe it’s because it was the first adaptation I saw, but whatever the reason, I thought the actresses/actors fit the characters the best, and Austen’s ironic humor really shone through.

Elizabeth Garvie as
Elizabeth Bennett in
Pride and Prejudice,
BBC 1985
Photo Credit: Jane Austen Wikia