The full unabridged text of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the DK Illustrated Classics Edition is a revelation. It is a heavy trade paperback, made with a substantially thick cover and white semi-gloss paper. And it is very attractive, filled with photographs of locations, dress, and paintings. The back cover boasts: “Classics designed for the modern reader”. Translation: “Classics designed for the visually spoiled person who needs some oomph to make traditional reading pallatable”. The book, short of providing podcasts and videos, offers everything else – background information for context; explanation of major themes; an illustrated glossary; timeline of the story; and a biography of Jane Austen. Questions for discussion were included at the very end. Within its pages, certain phrases and words are bolded and explained in more detail at the bottom.
Sample page, with colorful border on side and annotated explanations at the bottom.
Illustrated glossary
(Click on images for larger versions)
This edition of Pride and Prejudice is the perfect gift for someone who has fallen in love with the films but who has never read Jane’s words. I began the treasured opening sentence last night after ripping the package from the book seller open, and before I knew it I was spellbound again, immersed with the goings on of the denizens of Meryton.
I give this edition 3 out of 3 regency fans.
Jane Austen's World 
I wish I had such an edition when I started of with P&P when I was probably 13/14. I did not understand at that time why Mrs Bennett would be addressing her husband as “Mr Bennett”, but an annotation at the bottom would have helped! I see that it would have helped to know what a chaise and a four was too! :-)
Wow, thanks for the heads up. I’m a photo person, so this is definitely great for me.
Steamy Darcy
You’re right — these are superb. I found them at “five and below” (a variation on the Dollar Store) for $3 each and bought a bunch for gifts for nieces and other purposes as yet unknown.
I read that one awhile back. I really liked the color photos and illustrations. The sections on historical facts were good reference sources and even I found the annotations helpful for things I had read about previously and forgotten. I think this book is a wonderful introduction to the world of Jane Austen for a high school age girl and a good book for schools that have P&P on their required reading list. It’s useful for Janeites to look up facts quickly but it probably won’t tell you anything you don’t already know.
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