Pride and Prejudice and The Bridget Jone's Diary

Helen Fielding is the author of Bridget Jones's Diary, a novel written in 1996 that is based on the acclaimed novel of Jane Austin Pride and Prejudice. In this book is narrated in a diary-like style the life of a single thirty-something woman that writes about her friends, romantic relationships, family, career and vices in a ironic and humorist way. 

In Bridget Jones's Diary there are some similarities with Pride and Prejudice, for instance, the protagonist is a female ✓(check), protagonist's mother can be crass and out of place with her comments as Mrs. Bennet can be ✓ (check) and the male romantic love character of the protagonist is called Darcy and is interpreted by the same actor  ✓✓(double-check). These are just some of the connections that this novel has with Pride and Prejudice.

As we know, the book Pride and Prejudice (1813) starts as it follows:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession  of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
 

On the other hand, in the first book of the Bridget Jones's Diary we can find an interesting adaptation of this quote:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that the moment one area of your life goes okay, the other falls spectacularly to pieces” . It can be interesting how Helen Fielding jokes around her inspiration to write such a best-seller. 

P&P plays with pride and prejudice (of course) as much as Bridget Jones's Diary plays with them; Bridget meets a man but his “pride” and her prejudice keeps them apart. She believes, for other people's comments, that the man is dishonest and had done something terrible in the past. Finally, he learns to love her "just the way she is" and she realizes the truth about his past. Finally, he lets go of his "pride" and she lets go of her "prejudice" and therefore they fall in love. Don't you see the similarities here? Because I do...

However, we cannot say this books is the exact copy of Pride and Prejudice. This is a modern interpretation of P&P, and we can see it through the books or through the movies. Some of the characters, the context, the language and other elements are extreme opposites to the Victorian Austin's novel.

If Mr. Darcy would have the chance to read Lizzy's diary, as Mark Darcy did with Bridget, he probably would have found similar expressions about how Lizzy felt sometimes when he was around her. But he would not have the chance to buy a new diary so fast as Mark Darcy did it with Bridget.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/27/bridget-jones-s-diary-helen-fielding-book-club

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-21204956