Bridget Jones fest (sans movies)

Okay so now I have read both “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” by Helen Fielding. And in order to understand more fully the obsessions of Jones, I watched “Pride and Prejudice” starring Colin Firth. I paid especially close attention to the scene where he jumps into the pond and comes out all dripping wet (well, what do you expect to happen when you jump into a pond?)

These books seem in a way to be a modern version of “Pride and Prejudice” with the five desperately single sisters being replaced by four desperate urban singletons. The Mr. Darcy/Mark Darcy parallel is too obvious to mistake, as is the parallel between the wicked Mr. Wickham and the clever Daniel Cleaver. Also reminiscent of P&P is the moment when Bridget first sees Mark Darcy’s palatial home and she begins to find him attractive. Elizabeth admits that she began to fall in love with Mr. Darcy when she saw his huge estate. Remember guys, a grand house can make up for a lack of personality, manners, or a sense of humor.

I obviously wasn’t as smitten with P&P as many people have been. I suppose as a love story it is typical. There are people in love with each other, but are not willing to 1) admit it, 2) do anything about it, or 3) just talk to each other. Bridget Jones takes it one step further as she analyzes everything Mark Darcy does or does not do, and comes up with totally erroneous conclusions. This is similar to Elizabeth being angry at Mr. Darcy (what was his first name?) for all the wrongs he had done, but in her case she was right because on occasion, Mr. Darcy was a bit of a turd.

So, the lesson to be learned from P&P is that it’s bad when a man marries for money, but perfectly okay if a woman does so. And the lesson from the Bridget Jones books is that too many self-help books are a bad thing.

But this fest is not over yet, I have to watch the movies. As per my Rule #3, I cannot watch the movies until one month after I have read the books. So in a short while I will watch the films and report back on the bizarre tear in the space-time continuum where Colin Firth plays Mark Darcy (well then, who was in P&P?)

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LIBRARIANS: the books, the fame, the fortune… What more could you want? (Maybe more books.) Oh, its time I changed this ending thing. Gotta come up with something clever…