Key themes
- The single woman as a social problem — and her refusal to be one
- Austen's Pride and Prejudice transplanted to 1990s London
- Self-improvement as comedy — the diary as a record of failure and resolution
About this book
Bridget Jones, a thirty-something London singleton, keeps a diary of her calories, cigarettes, alcohol units and disastrous romantic encounters, including her boss Daniel Cleaver and the aloof Mark Darcy. Fielding's novel — a deliberate Austen retelling set in 1990s London — defined a new comedy of manners and spawned a cultural phenomenon that changed how women's commercial fiction was published and discussed.
Published in 1996, Bridget Jones's Diary began as a column in The Independent and became a global phenomenon. It launched a film franchise and a genre. Fielding has said she wrote it as a deliberate Austen retelling and was astonished by how recognisable Bridget was to women everywhere.
Discussion questions
- Bridget Jones is a deliberate retelling of Pride and Prejudice. How does Fielding use this parallel — and what does the 1990s context add to Austen's argument about women and marriage?
- Bridget's diary is full of failed resolutions, counting and self-criticism. What is Fielding saying through this register — is it a comedy of female self-punishment or a portrait of something more universal?
- The novel was enormously popular with women who recognised themselves in Bridget. What specifically did it give its readers — validation, recognition, catharsis?
- Mark Darcy is almost ostentatiously Darcy. How does Fielding handle the intertextual joke — and when does it stop being a joke?
- Bridget Jones launched a genre — the British chick-lit novel. What is Fielding's responsibility for this — and does the original stand apart from the genre it created?
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