A while back we are pretty sure we had a post or a comment about the then-mysterious Rocketbook Pride and Prejudice DVD, but have not been able to find it. At the time, there was no information on the item at Amazon. What was it? we wondered. Many months later, it popped up as a recommendation in Netflix, and we thought, “Why not?” and dropped it into our queue.

Looking at the Amazon page now, it’s fairly obvious that it is a sort of Cliff’s Notes on DVD, clearly geared towards the short attention span crowd. Each section contains a plot summary of three or so chapters of the novel, illustrated with folk-art style illustrations, then an analysis discussing literary conventions such as themes and motifs, and then a pop quiz covering both the plot and the analysis. The analysis seems geared towards high-school level or perhaps a very introductory university survey course. Social details, such an entailment, are explained, but so simplistic that the definitions are nearly incorrect. And we were amused by the comment, “Darcy is totally impressed by the brilliancy of her complexion.” Dude. Totally. 😉

Most Janeites being intimately acquainted with the novels, the Rocketbook DVD is totally 😉 a waste of time, but we dare say freshmen might find it useful, though we hope they would be getting most of the information contained in it from their teachers–along with reading the book, of course. 😀