our Pride & Prejudice read-a-long ends this week
it's time to look back at 10 weeks of closely reading
Hello, close readers!
This week, it’s time to finish the final chapters of Pride & Prejudice. As the week unfolds, you’ll receive:
Your final reading guide to the closing chapters
An amazing guest essay by my friend, the illustrious Professor Hannah Korell
A surprise!!!! (
and I are working on something special!!!!)And, finally, paid subscribers will receive a bonus post early next week with a final reading exercise, writing prompts to inspire your own reflection on the novel, and a host of links to incredible articles and essays about Austen from all around the internet
Our first read of 2025
This has been an amazing experience — and I’ve been so inspired by how many people not only signed up for the journey but stuck with it each week! You should be so proud of yourself. It is no small thing to commit to a reading group and your eagerness and presence here has made this such a fantastic experience.
Over the last ten weeks, we’ve explored:
Sisterly affection and disaffection
The quirks of pre-Victorian society (like those little gambling fish tokens!)
The particular neuroses of families (especially mothers…) under entail
The responsibilities of women in Regency homes and society
How a father should (or could) behave in Regency society
Marriage practices and customs
The way wealth and status create a whole system of power and expectations, transforming some men into bitter officers with an axe to grind, some into verbose clergymen with absolutely zero self-awareness and a hobby of writing elegant little compliments for the females, and still others into beloved gentlemen who appear prideful but are really just super socially anxious
The inner life of a brilliant and stubborn young lady, and the many painful lessons she must learn about her habit of making prejudiced assumptions—and her beautiful ability to change her mind (and heart) when presented with new information
The profound power of letters to inspire action
And the mysterious structures of evolving social power: who has power in this story? who doesn’t have it? who can get it? who struggles to keep it? who wants more than their share? who doesn’t want it at all?
As a reminder, here is how we broke things down:
WEEK 1 | Monday, January 20
Read volume 1, chapter 1 (just chapter 1!)
WEEK 2 | Monday, January 27
Read volume 1, chapters 2-9
WEEK 3 | Monday, February 3
Read volume 1, chapters 10-16
WEEK 4 | Monday, February 10
Read volume 1, chapters 17-23 (END OF VOLUME 1)
WEEK 5 | Monday, February 17
Read volume 2, chapters 1-6
(Continuous chapters: 24-29)
WEEK 6 | Monday, February 24
Read volume 2, chapters 7-14
(Continuous chapters: 30-37)
WEEK 7 | Monday, March 3
Read volume 2, chapters 15-19 (END OF VOLUME 2)
(Continuous chapters: 38-42)
WEEK 8 | Monday, March 10
Read volume 3, chapters 1-6
(Continuous chapters: 43-48)
WEEK 9 | Monday, March 17
Read volume 3, chapters 7-13
(Continuous chapters: 49-55)
WEEK 10 | Monday, March 24
Read volume 3, chapters 14-19 (END OF NOVEL)
(Continuous chapters: 56-61)
Start your reflections now
Closing the final page of a book can be such a meaningful occasion. As you complete the novel this week (whether you’re still keeping pace with our schedule, catching up on extra chapters, or re-reading the ending because you simply couldn’t wait to finish weeks ago), I hope you’ll take a moment to recognize your own dedication to this practice.
A novel this wonderful can make all this “paying attention” and “closely reading” business feel extra satisfying—and it can also, in some ways, make it feel easier to do. But that doesn’t mean it’s actually easy work.
You know this.
I want you to take a moment to celebrate this achievement of closely reading a novel over ten weeks. For some of you, this was a gently exciting re-read of a story you’ve loved for decades. For others, it was a foray into a brand new story and author you’ve never encountered before. And as we’ve discussed: both approaches have their challenges and their unexpected delights.
Starting, reading, and finishing a novel is nothing to shrug at. And to have done so while closely reading and honing your own reading skills and habits—well, that’s certainly worth celebrating. After all, we live in a world that basically yells at us, all day long, through advertisements and doomsday discourse and endless scrolls of new new new new information, packaged up a million different ways to satisfy a million variations on the algorithm.
Shutting all of that off and turning yourself toward the quiet focus of reading a novel with your full attention is a form of resistance. Magical, resonant resistance.
Closely reading is a reminder to you that you can understand complexity. That things are almost never as simple as they seem on the surface. That our own pride can be seated quietly next to us, removed from the driver’s seat. That the siren-song of forming prejudice can be halted in its tracks—can be silenced—in the moment we decide to read, and then reread, a critical letter that invites us to pause.
I keep going back to that long night of the soul, in which Lizzy wrestles with the powerful consequences of Darcy’s letter at the midpoint of the novel. How she tugs against herself; wonders at the depth of deceit in the charming Wickham she trusted; questions her ability to parse character from appearance.
In that moment, Lizzy closely reads her own mind.
And it is emotional, demanding work. It seems to challenge her—and, in that way, fire her up. Make her eager to the task of discovering the truth. Open her up, rather than close her off, to the possibility of a bigger life than she has perhaps even dreamt for herself.
To be mistress of Pemberley would be something!
Closely reading requires more of you—of your mind, your care, your attention, your energy—than you perhaps expected. (No matter how much I make reading closely a part of my daily practice and strive to engage with literature as often as I can, I’m continually struck by the demands it makes on me, and how wonderfully rewarding those demands feel to meet.)
I hope, for you, the last ten weeks have also showed you how ready you are for a challenge. Perhaps you’ve become more eager for literature. Maybe you leave this experience feeling more open-minded about the novels you’ll choose to read in the future. You may even be dreaming up bigger challenges—and more closely reading—for yourself in the future.
I hope so.
As you reflect on this reading experience, and as you finish the novel this week, I hope you’ll take a moment to feel the fruits of your labors in reading this book together with us. Relish those final pages. Notice how you’re breathing as you read. Notice what it feels like—in your chest, in your arms, in your jaw, in your fingers—as you turn those final pages, make your final annotations, reach the last word with your eyes.
Enjoy it!
Thank you for reading with me
There are many more thanks to come throughout the week. But for now, as I myself head into the final paragraphs of the novel, thank you for reading with me and spending this time with me. I can’t wait to discuss the final chapters!
Up next
I’m so excited for our next two reads! I’ve paired these two very intentionally: the first is a long short story, or a short novella, from the late 19th century that inspired Tillie Olsen to write her own magnificent short novella decades later. In many ways, Yonnondio is a modernization of Life in the Iron Mills. They are, critically, not the same story. But they’re not not the same story. If you decide to read with me, you’re in for the treat of learning what I mean by that ;)
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis — 1 week
We will reading this story from April 7 through April 14. Get your copy now!
Yonnondio by Tillie Olsen — 4 weeks
We’ll read this remarkable modernist novella from April 14 through May 5. Order it now!
If you’re not ready to become a paid subscriber, you can always make a one-time contribution and buy me a coffee!
It has been such a wonderful expérience! Slowing down gave me the opportunity to appreciate and better understand the novel and recognize my feelings about the story.
Thank you very much !
Thank you so much for leading this! Experiencing Pride and Prejudice again this way was a real treat.