"Pride & Prejudice" by Nancy Butler, Illustrated by Hugo Petrus

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Bibliographic Citation

Title: Pride & Prejudice

Author: Nancy Butler

Illustrator: Hugo Petrus

Year of Publication: 2009

Publisher City: New York

Publisher: Marvel Publishing, Inc.

ISBN: 9780785139157

Author Website: No Author Website

Illustrator Website: http://hugopetrus.blogspot.com/

Media Used for Artwork: Pencil, Ink

Fiction Graphic Novel

"The Classics Revisited" Group Project-  Please visit our presentation here to learn more about how this graphic novel and others can be used in a high school curriculum.

Annotation

The Bennet family has five daughters, all of which needs a husband.  So the family works through British social circles, enduring triumph and turmoil.  The addition Mister Darcy into Lizzy’s life just adds more drama for her and her family.

Personal Reaction

                This adaption is unique in the fact that Butler took text directly from Austen’s novel instead of attempting to rewrite the story.  Butler mentioned at the beginning of the novel that she originally tried to modernize the language but it took away from the story.  Using direct text from the novel helps keep this adaptation more truthful to the original. 

Readers can understand the main points of the novel even though it is shortened.  This graphic novel is good to read after the novel so that readers can reemphasize the main parts of the novel in their minds. 

Since this graphic novel started off in comic book series the illustrations match it accordingly.  There is a roughness to the lines, but that adds details to the characters.  There is realism to the main characters, such as Lizzy and Mr. Darcy, so that readers will not get absorbed in the idea that they are suppose to be Marvel superheroes.  Petrus also did a wonderful job of over exaggerating the comedic characters; such at Mrs. Bennet, whose actions and facial features were always on the dramatic side.

School Curriculum: Grade 12 English- This graphic novel will help in understanding the order of actions in the novel for students who may have gotten confused by the amount of detail in the original text.  The conversations are emphasized so students can understand what was discussed in the novel.  This adaptation allows an easier ability to read aloud in class, a selection of students taking on the role of a certain characters, while others follow along with the illustrations.