In an interview on Books that Changed the World

Your next book is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

This book is one of the few perfect novels ever written. Its style and plot and characters are all in balance, with nothing superfluous. Because of this, I think it is easy to overlook quite how revolutionary Austen was when her heroine insisted on a woman’s right to marry for love. Georgian society was even more materialistic and money obsessed than our own, and in those days women were expected to choose prudently, like Elizabeth Bennet’s best friend Charlotte. No sooner does Elizabeth reject the repulsive Mr Collins than Charlotte snaps him up, even though she can’t love him. 

It’s interesting to remember that Jane Austen turned down a proposal from a gentleman of serious means who wanted to marry her, because she couldn’t marry without love. Although it is true that Elizabeth did very well out of marrying for love when she finally married Mr Darcy, she is chastised by her mother for rejecting Mr Collins. That decision dramatised a turning point in women’s emancipation, because, before you can achieve other kinds of emancipation in the outside world, you have to be emancipated internally, and to see yourself as something worthy of love, and free. Marriage is still one of the most important choices people ever make, and Austen’s novel changes the world for at least half the population by dramatising its dilemmas. I know its themes are still very popular and much debated amongst the Asian girls.

It’s not just an enchanting story but something that makes people question their own values.