The Darcy and Bingley characters being brothers changed the dynamic a little too, so did making Darcy the younger rather than the older. I also struggled with some of the other changes – the cast being teenagers perhaps made sense for them all to still be living at home, but I’ve never read a version where the cast were teenagers. I have seen reviews which critique the vocabulary and narrative style used, but I wonder if perhaps those people are clinging too closely to the very English satire of manners from the source material, and not considering the book in its own right. I’m about as far removed from the subject matter as is possible, my experiences and vocabulary as a white, middle-class, English woman are very different from those of a black, working-class, American girl of Haitian/Dominican descent in Brooklyn.

It’s a first person narrative, so Zuri’s voice is extremely strong throughout – there is no avoiding her slang and patter, and it feels so starkly different from the original that it seems a shock. I will admit, it took a little to settle into. I’ve mentioned before that I am always on the lookout for good adaptations, so when I heard Pride was being released this year it immediately went on my wish list. It’s almost a family book – my mother, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, we all love it. I have been a fan of Pride and Prejudice since I was about 14 years old. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding.īut with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius.

When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. Genre: Contemporary literature, Classic rewrite

UK Publisher: Harper Collins/Balzer and Bray

Pride ibi zoboi characters