Book Report 1
a.
Author: Helen Fielding
Title: Bridget Jones’s Diary
Published: April 2001 by Picador
The main character is Bridget Jones ofcourse. She’s a single woman in her thirties, and she works in a publishing house.
An important sub character is Daniel Cleaver, Daniel is Bridget’s boss, Bridget is secretly in love with Daniel. She feels sexually attracted to him. After a while, she has a relation with him which ends very sad for Bridget.
Another important sub character is Marcy Darcy. He is a top-lawyer. Bridget’s mother tries to couple Bridget and Mark but Bridget doesn’t like him, actually, she hates him. Mark and Daniel are likely in their thirties too. In the summary I figure out their characters.
The story takes place in London. This story also takes place in the present (no year mentioned).
It’s hard to make a summary about this story because it’s a diary. But I’ll try to resume what she has written down.
Bridget Jones is a single woman in her thirties. She is desperately looking for a boyfriend, she is always dieting and is trying to stop smoking and drinking.
Her mother and her mothers friends try to couple her with a rich lawyer; Mark Darcy, but Bridget isn’t interested. A lot of her married friends bluster about her love life and she doesn’t like that.
Problems about men are discussed with Sharon and Jude, her best friends, or with Tom; a homosexual friend who is always there to listen to her.
Bridget is in love with Daniel, her boss. After a long time of flirting, they start dating, but soon she finds out that he has got an affair with another woman. Actually, Daniel is engaged. It takes her a while to get over him.
On top of her own problems, her parents have problems too since her mother is dating Julio, a Portuguese she has met on her vacation.
At the end of the year, and the end of the book too, Mark tells Bridget he actually likes her, and Bridget seems to like him too so Bridget and Mark fall in love.
b.
The title isn’t very hard to explain. This book is telling how Bridget thinks about men, herself and others around her. It’s the diary of Bridget Jones.
This book is clearly a love-novel. Bridget writes down her experiences, and especially those in her love-life.
The main theme in this book is love ofcourse. There are some other sub themes as loneliness and family-drama. The motives in this book aren’t very clear, because it’s someone’s life-story. Allthough, one thing that sticks out is Bridget’s addiction to drinking, smoking and dieting. Those things have a very prominent place in her diary.
This diary is definetely chronologic. Her diary starts in January and ends in December. There are no flashbacks. At the very beginning in this book, Bridget describes her New Year’s Resolutions.
Characters:
Bridget Jones:
Bridget works at a publishing house. She is very neurotic and doesn’t really think well of herself. She’s very impulsive too.
Her main problem is that she’s is in her thirties and ‘still’ doesn’t have a boyfriend, or husband. For Bridget herself it already was a problem that she didn’t have a boyfriend. And everyone keeps asking her, why she doesn’t have a boyfriend.
Mark Darcy:
Mark is the son of friends of Bridget’s mother. He’s a very rich and known lawyer. And he acts like that too, that’s why Bridget doesn’t fall for him at the beginning of the book. I don’t exactly know his age, but that must be mid-thirties. When Bridget finally finds out he’s quite nice, is he in love with her too. And at the end of the book, they have a relationship. Mark hasn’t very many developments, allthough, he acts more friendly to the people around him.
Daniel Cleaver:
Daniel is Bridget’s boss at the publishing house. I think he is in his thirties too but I’m not sure. Daniel is very slippery. He thinks very cool about things that keep Bridget busy for one night. Daniel has no developments during this book. His character at the end is just the same as his character in the beginning of the book.
This story must be seen through Bridgets eyes. It’s her diary so it can’t be seen by someone else. You are constantly confrontated with Bridgets thoughts.
As I have already said, the story takes place in Londen. The most of the time we’re in Bridget’s apartment I think, other locations are: her office, her Mum and Dad’s house, The Darcy’s house, at the pub, at the hotel where Bridget and Daniel are staying and around the house and garden of Aunt Una and Uncle Geoffrey.
c.
I liked the book very much. It’s very hilarous how Bridget writes down her thoughts. This story fits in my experiences, that’s because it’s written in Bridget’s perspective. I also like this theme, it’s not very difficult and it’s nice to read about someones love-life. Some of the fragments in the book are a little faint, but you can think of something yourself there.
The composition of this story is very clear. There are no confusing jumps in time because it’s chronologic. It’s just month after month. Bridget talks with other people about the past, but I think that isn’t really a flashback because it’s not in the story. And because the composition is so clear, it is sometimes boring to read. It’s only month after month and so on, the whole diary. Ofcourse that’s natural, but it makes the book a little bit boring to read.
I think the characters are each a nice person, only on their own way. I like Bridget because she’s so impulsive and how she thinks about men. I have to say that in the book, she seems to be more desperate than in the movie. I like Daniel, in this book, because he’s so slibbery to Bridget, but he will never be one of my friends. And I like Darcy because he’s shy, that’s cute. And also Darcy happened to be very boring in the movie, but in the book he is nice. I do not feel related to them because they are over-thirty, but I can image myself their lives. But I like their characters, they are so different.
For me, the story has no particular meaning. It’s nice to read but I did not learn anything. Helen Fielding wrote the book in a very funny way. For example: every day she first says how much she weighs, how many alcohol units she had that day, how many cigarettes she had that day, how many calories she ate and (sometimes) how many positive thoughts she has had.
A few passages were nice to read, for example when Bridget finds out Daniel is cheating on her with some other girl, or when Bridget’s mother had an affair with Julio, or when Bridget’s friend Tom disappears or when she doesn’t hear the doorbell when she is blow-drying her hair and then thought Mark Darcy stood her up. What sticks out in this book, is that it’s so different to the movie. The movie is some kind of summary from the book. I first saw the movie, and I could concentrate on the movie better than I could on the book. The funny situations are figured out the same, but in the book, there’s more useless information. In both she tells us how much she weights, how many alcohol units she has drunk etc etc. In the film, you don’t pay much attention on that, but in the book, it’s needless to mention it on every page.
Helen Fielding also wrote the book in a very funny way. For example: every day she first says how much she weights, how many alcohol units she has had that day, how many cigarettes she had that day, how many calories she ate and (sometimes) how many positive thoughts she has had.
d.
I don’t think I learned something from the book, but I don’t think that was the intention of the writer, to learn something from it. I think it’s just an entertainment book. But, I have to say something, so… I think the situations in this book are very recognizable. But I have no other looks to characters or genres after reading this story. It’s an entertainment book, it’s not made to learn people something. Sometimes, it’s unpleasant to read in English, because Bridget uses telegram-style in her diary, and sometimes she leaves a verb out. Besides, I think the book damaged the movie, I first saw the movie, and in this book there’s too much useless information.
Actually, this book wasn’t really surprising at all. Helen Fielding wrote this book in a funny way, and than you can expect everything, and every situation, that makes nothing strange on this book. Or you can say; the whole book was surprising because Bridget gets her self in a lot awkward situations, during the whole book. Allthough, one thing that cought my eye, is that I saw that Helen Fielding wrote this book for her mother Nellie, because she’s not like Bridget’s Mum. Some depictions were a little bit vulgar but that did not irritate me, that’s makes the book hilarious. But I can image some people does irritate that. The end of the book wasn’t really suprising, you know she goes with Mark on the end, but you don’t know what happens between Mark and Daniel. Helen Fielding wrote that part very surprising.
My opinion about boys, love, or whatever is important in this book, did not change after reading this. As I said, it’s not a book to learn from. The book is made to amuse people, not to give them advices how to handle in their love-life. Ofcourse I think Daniel Cleaver is very rude to Bridget when he does not tell he’s cheating on her, and Mark Darcy acts very upstanding to Bridget in the beginning of this book. But that is not so important, I think everybody agrees with me about that, that’s a fact.
I have definetely not learned something about myself after reading this book. The only thing I concluded after reading this book is that I never become a person like Bridget when I’m thirty. No smoking and not too much drinking. Well, I hope so. Some of the situations in this book a very recognizible, and I think I would do the same as Bridget did, in that situations. The fact I did not learn something from reading this story but doesn’t decrease the quality of this book. The genre is comedy, and this book is absolutely a comedy, that comes true in the occasions, the characters and the style of this story and the writing of it. I see forward to read part two.