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Book Review: Bridget Jones' Diary

Book title:                Bridget Jones's Diary
Author:               Helen Fielding
Published by:          Picador     
Year of publication:          1996


LITERARY ANALYSIS

Summary

Bridget Jones's Diary tells the story of Bridget Jones, a young woman in her thirties and single. She is on a quest for self-improvement and finding Mr. Right.
She keeps a diary where she wrights down what she is doing during a day, with what she's thinking, feeling, and also how many calories she had in one day, how much she drinks, and also her weight. Very obsessive.

Bridget is a journalist, and is having an affair with her boss, Daniel Cleaver. But this ends a bit dramatically, which makes her very uncomfortable with her job. In the beginning, she is very obsessed with this man, but in the end, he is not too important to her anymore.
Bridget's mother is very annoying trying to set up Bridget with some handsome, rich lawyer, Mark Darcy. Also her family is very annoying because they keep asking her why she hasn't got a boyfriend, and what they are going to do with her.

With her friends, Bridget Jones searches for love, career, satisfaction, and Inner Poise. Her life is not what she thought it should be. Her love life sucks, she does not like her job anymore (seeing Daniel everyday).

She is trapped between the freedom of being a Singleton, and the fear of being alone forever.


Setting: time and place

This novel takes place in the present time. The exact date is unknown, but I think you can tell this in page 9 ‘..........in actual fact, you can get them with a compartment with bottles for your bubble bathe and things' , because bubble baths weren't there in 1980 for example. Also you can tell because on page 23 ‘ Have never messaged Daniel Cleaver before but brilliant thing about messaging system is you can be really quite cheeky and informal, even to you boss.' A messaging system didn't exist 20 years ago.
The novel is during one year exactly, from January till the end of December. In a way the whole story is a flashback, because it's written in diary.

This novel takes place in London, you can tell this because Bridget wrote it down in her dairy, page 7 ‘Noon. London: my flat'.

Also in page 172 ‘By the time I got back to London.........for a bit reassurance.', you can tell that most of the time the story takes place in London.

Title explanation

The title of this novel is Bridget Jones's Diary. The main character keeps a diary, and the story is, everything what she has been up to, and what her feelings and thoughts are. Bridget writes all that down in her diary, included how many cigarettes she smokes, how many calories she has had, and how many alcohol units she drinks. Sometimes she mentions how many positive and negative thoughts she had.

So it really is the diary of Bridget Jones.

Example: page 17 ‘9 st 4 (terrifying slide into obesity- why? Why?), alcohol units 6 (excellent), cigarettes 23 (v.g.), calories 2472.'
Example: page 17 ‘Ugh. Cannot face thought...............and watching Xmas specials.'

Ending

The novel has an open ending, because you don't know if Bridget and Mark are going to be together, and if they're going to be happy together.

In the end, Bridget is asked by Mark Darcy to have a ‘Christmas lunch' with him. Bridget thinks Mark is really v. sweet, and so cool. Then she finds out Mark really likes her, and the two of them go upstairs to a suite that Mark arranged. They talk a little; actually, Mark is telling Bridget how much he loves her. The sort of stuff Daniel was always coming out with. After that, they are going to the bedroom and they are probably having sex.*

Bridget finally realizes the secret of happiness with men. But what that secret means isn't clear to me.

*Page 307 ‘But what.....?. Don't you mean but pardon? Then he took the champagne glass...........I am going to spontaneously combust with shame.'

Point of view

The point of view in this novel is first person narrative. Because the person who tells the story uses 'I' and is a character in the story.

Example: page 89 ‘I read an article.........of chilled white wine.'

Example: page 105 ‘I have eaten normally. It's a miracle. Rang Tom who said.........have a tapeworm.'

Example: page 209 ‘I had forgotten..................asking where the ladies' is.'

The main character knows everything about the other characters, and she tells the reader about it in her diary.


Theme

I think staying true to yourself is this novels theme. Because if you don't stay true to yourself, your life won't go the way you would like it to go. You are not real but fake than.
Bridget must endure a lot before she finally accepts that she has to just be herself and not what others want her to be. For example, when she lost weight, her friends tell her she looks very tired and not quite healthy. It took her 18 years of trying to get down to 8st 7, and when she finally achieved that point, her friends are telling she looked better before.

Quote page 107 ‘you just seemed................I think you looked better before, hon.'

SOCIAL / CULTURAL ANALYSIS

Chick lit:

• A new genre of writing which refers to modern literature for women- that is written about late twenty and thirty something singles (aka singletons) as they search for the perfect partner.
• Books about male singles are known as Lad Lit.
• Characters do not have to be neurotic, but it helps.
• Als Helen Fielding puts it: "Bridget's battling with two different ideas. One is the image of the Cosmo Girl, that she should be living this great, independent life full of friends and glamorous dinner parties. The second is the old fashioned idea of failure: that if you're not married by thirty, you'll die alone and be found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian."

• Maggie Alderson - Filling Holes (pub 11/04), Mad About the Boy, Pants on Fire
• Catherine Alliott - Going Too Far, A Married Man, The Old Girl Network, Olivia's Luck, The Real Thing, Rosie Meadows Regrets
• Valerie-Anne Baglietto - Fresh As a Daisy, The Wrong Mr. Right, The Wrong Sort of Girl
• Louise Bagshawe - A Kept Woman, Career Girls, The Devil You Know, The Movie, Tall Poppies, Venus Envy, When She Was Bad, Monday's Child (New - pub 4/04)
• Sarah Ball - Marry Me, Nine Months, Written In The Stars (pub 8/04)
• Zoe Barnes - Bouncing Back, Bumps, Ex-Appeal, Hitched, Hot Property, Just Married, Love Bug, Split Ends (pub 8/04)
• Emily Barr - Atlantic Shift (New 6/04), Backpack, Baggage, Cuban Heels
• Sophie Kinsella- Confessions of a shopaholic, The Secret Dreamworld Of A Shopaholic, Shopaholic Abroad, Shopaholic & Sisters
• Hoanne Harris- Chocolat, The last of the Blackberry Wine
• Fiona Walker- Between Males, French Relations, Gil's Night In, Kiss Chase, Lucy Talk, Snap Happ
• Marian Keyes- Angels, Last Chance Saloon, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Rachel's Holiday, Sushi for Beginners, Watermelon

CONCLUSION

I think Bridget Jones's Diary was a hilarious book to read. There was a lot of humour in it. The story was maybe a little over rejected for me, but that did make it fun to read. The first pages I thought; what is this about? Afterwards it came all very clear to me. Bridget herself is unconfident I think, and there aren't other women like her I hope. I really like the HEALTH WARNING that is written on the cover of the novel: ‘Adopting Bridget's lifestyle could seriously damage your health.'
The author has a clear way of expressing Bridget's thoughts and feelings. The way things are described are all clear as well. I think you should be true to yourself, cause if you don't your life will go the other way around.
Now that I've read the book, I definitely want to watch the movie, because I want to see which actor play what part.

P 167
"Daniel was very sweet tonight and spent ages helping me choose my outfit for the Tarts and Vicars"

I like this quote because I think there aren't many man who do such things, and if there is one, I really would like to meet him. Not that I want someone helping me to choose my cloths, but I think that's just really sweet.

P 168
"I Couldn't believe it. He promised.........................can get out of anything."

I like this quote because it's really familiar to me, my ex-boyfriend did this all the time, so I could go alone to every party. That really makes you feel "single".

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