The prejudice against pride.

• Author: Puterbaugh, Dolores T.
• Position: PARTING THOUGHTS - Pride and Prejudice - Book review

MY SON-IN-LAW snatched the book away before his nearly two-year-old daughter had fully unwrapped it. "No!" he asserted, "She's not even two.... You cannot bring her into The Cult!" You may well wonder what I possibly could have dredged up from the dark cesspools of psychology for my little granddaughter. It was something that every two-year-old without must want: Jennifer Adams' and Alison Oliver's toddler board book of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Yes, the Cult of Austen and its largest sect, the Pride and Prejudice Crewe, is what stirred such horror in a 20-year-veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

It is an innocuous enough child's counting book, its minor details amusing to the older cult members who are reading it aloud: "ONE ... English village. TWO ... rich gentlemen...." You get the point.

Is Pride and Prejudice a sort of a cult? It bears reflection. Those who "get it" often read the book each year or so, gleaning new insights and reacquainting themselves with the people and plotlines. The members of the cult can become quite heated in debating various film versions, much like historians battling over different interpretations of ancient accounts of battles won and lost. Why should a book, little heralded in its day, have attained and retained cult status? This has been analyzed, no doubt in doctoral theses, so I will have a little fun in pointing out a trio of lessons from Pride and Prejudice--three precepts of The Cult, ff you will--that very much apply to our present day:

First, there is no degree of virtue --or talent or beauty--that a good dose of arrogance cannot overwhelm and turn into something bitter and repulsive. The "Pride" of the title relates to the burden of responsibility, resulting in a kind of stiffness and caution about relationships, that infected Darcy due to his inheriting a very large estate, with much responsibility, at a relatively young age. Yet, his pride is amateurish compared to the arrogance and narcissism of other characters. The obsequious and socially inept Mr. Collins, the self-congratulatory and awkward Mary Bennett, and the conniving and creel well-to-do young ladies who are angling for rich husbands all are examples of arrogance overcoming whatever gifts they brought to the table of life. One can only read, cringe, and feel relieved when they depart the scene. Think of any famous and powerful celebrity whom you find irritating. What a wonderful world it would be if more children learned early that...