Books We’ve Loved: Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, a blueprint to the modern romance

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This year, readers around the world are celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th birthday. On the inaugural episode of Books We’ve Loved, hosts Andrew Limbong and B.A. Parker are joined by Pop Culture Happy Hour’s Linda Holmes to discuss Austen’s seminal novel Pride & Prejudice. The trio weighs in on how the romance genre continues to reference the book’s “enemies to lovers” story – and why the tale’s leads Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy still make us and laugh and swoon even today. Special guest romance novelist, Casey McQuiston also drops by to share how Austen’s legacy provides inspiration for their own work.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Books We've Loved from NPR.
0:03.2	Yes, you're still listening to the Book of the Day feed.
0:07.1	Yeah, we're usually giving you some of the latest releases, but we're going to be spending
0:11.8	the next couple of weeks rereading old favorite books.
0:15.0	And tell you why they still matter today.
0:17.7	Yeah, we're making timeless books timely again.
0:21.6	Now, I'm B.A. Parker.
0:23.2	I'm one of the hosts of NPR's Code Switch.
0:26.0	And if you're a regular listener to this feed, you've probably heard me.
0:29.1	I'm Andrew Limbaugh, and I am very excited to be hanging out with you, Parker, and talk
0:33.8	about some of our favorite books.
0:35.1	Thanks, me too.
0:36.3	And on our first episode, we get to speak to one of our great colleagues here at NPR,
0:42.8	pop culture happy hours, Linda Holmes.
0:45.7	Hey, Linda.
0:46.5	Oh, I'm so excited to be here, you guys.
0:48.2	I'm so excited.
0:49.3	Well, we're about to enter a world I'm relatively new to.
0:53.2	To not tease this out anymore, we are talking about Jane Austen's
0:56.1	pride and prejudice. It's a big one. Yeah, it's a big one. This is a doozy. It looms large in many
1:03.0	minds. I'll just put it that way. A hundred percent. Wait, are you a big Austin head, Linda?
1:07.5	I'm not a big Austin head. I have read some of the books and I have seen some of the
	...

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