Hey, it's Linda Holmes. This year, readers around the world are celebrating Jane Austen's

250th birthday. So today on Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're bringing you an episode of NPR's Book of

the Day podcast. They have a new series called Books We've Loved. Our pals, Andrew Limbong,

N.B.A. Parker, are making timeless books timely again by rereading old favorite books and

telling us why they matter today. Recently, I joined them to talk about pride and prejudice.

We chat about how the romance genre continues to reference the book's enemies to lovers story

and why Lizzie Bennett and Mr. Darcy still make us laugh and swoon even today.

Here's Andrew.

Well, we're about to enter a world I'm relatively new to.

To not tease this out anymore, we are talking about Jane Austen's

pride and prejudice. It's a big one. Yeah, it's a big one. This is a doozy. It looms large in many

minds. I'll just put it that way. A hundred percent. Wait, are you a big Austin head, Linda?

I'm not a big Austin head. I have read some of the books and I have seen some of the films,

but I am not the kind of Austin Head that many of my acquaintances and friends are,

which is to say one of my friends has like led Austin tours around parts of England.

And it's, I'm not that kind, but, you know.

I guess my friend has been booked and busy this year.

Yeah, and I really, really, really, I really like this book, so.

Yeah.

All right, for the people who haven't read it, I just got a quick synopsis here.

It's about how you cannot tell Lizzie Bennett what to do, right?

This book follows Elizabeth Bennett and her four sisters travails with men and marriage.

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