Pride & Prejudice

I'm ALMOST done with this book! I'm on page 246 and by the end of this week I will certainly be over with this novel. It's a very long, hard, quite dreadful book that I would usually never read. I'm glad that I watched the film or I wouldn't know half the things happening in it. It's very difficult to understand because the writing style is from the 1800s of England. There are grammars and many things different compared to mondern English. For example, the way they call family members is strange to my ears; when sisters talk to each other they say, "My uncle," or "My mother," not "Uncle ___" or "Mother." Also, Mrs. Bennett sometimes calls her husband Mr. Bennett, when these days wives would use the first name to call their husband. Another thing thats different is spelling such as choose is spelled as chuse. Anyways, it's really different from what you can read these days so it makes the book both interesting and difficult to read.

Through this book I can learn the cultures of Britain in the 1800s. In the section I read this week, Lydia Bennett, the youngest daughter of the Bennetts, got married. Marraige was very different back then because the girl's family had to give a lot of money to the man. Mr. Bennett has to give 5,000 pounds (which is what he will give to each of his daughters when he passes away) plus 100 pounds per month. This was actually very little money and it said that usually no man would marry someone like Lydia unless with at least 10,000 pounds. One thing that was common even these days is that Lydia went from house to house to show off that she was married, which also people these days do, but usually by phone.
Another culture that I learned is that back then when they went to someon's house or another place, they would usually stay for weeks. These days, it's uncommon that you would stay at another person's house for even a few days. However, back then, visits would usually last from one to two months at the least, and a short visit would be about ten days. I wonder if over the years people have thought that time was too valuable to travel and leaisure for months, or if it was just a transportation change? These days people all have cars so they don't have to stay in one place for too long. However, staying at a person's house has positive sides because you get to discover new places, become more friendlier with people, and also have a long rest. So, why has visiting places changed from months to days? I wonder...