Pride and Prejudice
By Jane Austen

I remember feeling a sense of dread when I learned I had to read this for my English class. I couldn't imagine that a book written in the early 1800s would have anything to do with my life. Was I wrong! I suppose the lesson here is that relationships between the sexes haven't changed that much. There's a powerful part in the book when Mr. Darcy, the man Elizabeth Bennet considers her enemy, turns out to be the one who saves her family's reputation. We've all had Darcys in our life—men who have off-putting exteriors but who, once you start peeling away the artifice, turn out to be someone else entirely. I respected Elizabeth's conviction, and I loved that she had to learn about misplaced pride and prejudice.