Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason: A Novel - Softcover

Fielding, Helen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140298479 ISBN 13: 9780140298475

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2001

Synopsis

With another devastatingly hilarious, ridiculous, unnervingly accurate take on modern womanhood, Bridget Jones is back. (v.g.)

Monday 27 January

"7:15 a.m. Hurrah! The wilderness years are over. For four weeks and five days now have been in functional relationship with adult male, thereby proving am not love pariah as recently feared."

Wednesday 5 March

"7:08 p.m. Am assured, receptive, responsive woman of substance. My sense of self comes not from other people but . . .from . . .myself? That can't be right."

Lurching from the cappuccino bars of Notting Hill to the blissed-out shores of Thailand, everyone's favorite Singleton Bridget Jones begins her search for The Truth in spite of pathetically unevolved men, insane dating theories, and Smug Married advice. She experiences a zeitgeist-esque Spiritual Epiphany somewhere between the pages of How to Find the Love You Want Without Seeking It (can self-help books really help self?), protective custody, and a lightly chilled Chardonnay.

About this title

Review

Fans of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary will recall that at the end of that sly and funny version of Pride and Prejudice, singleton heroine Bridget landed her Mr. Darcy at last--Mark Darcy, that is. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason picks up four weeks later, and already the honeymoon is over. In addition to discovering that the man of her dreams votes conservative, left-leaning Bridget is also feeling just a mite uncomfortable with the realities of sharing bed and board with another person:

V. complicated actually having man in house as cannot freely spend requisite amount of time in bathroom or turn into gas chamber as conscious of other person late for work, desperate for pee etc.; also disturbed by Mark folding up underpants at night, rendering it strangely embarrassing now simply to keep all own clothes in pile on floor.

But all of these problems pale to insignificance with the arrival on the scene of Rebecca, a beautiful, man-hunting arch-nemesis with "thighs like a baby giraffe" and absolutely no girlfriend code of ethics when it comes to poaching another woman's man. Before long, Rebecca's manipulations, Bridget's own insecurities, and a string of misunderstandings (starting with a naked Filipino boy in Mark Darcy's bed and ending with a suggestive valentine from Bridget's dry cleaner) result in "128 lbs. (good), alcohol units 0 (excellent), cigarettes 5 (a pleasant, healthy number), no. times driven past Mark Darcy's house 2 (v.g.), no. of times looked up Mark Darcy's name in phone book to prove still exists 18 (v.g.), 1471 calls 12 (better), no. of phone calls from Mark 0 (tragic).

Fortunately, Bridget has plenty of other problems to distract her. Her mother has returned from a trip to Kenya with a young Masai in tow--to her father's consternation; her best friends Jude, Shazzer, and Tom are all trapped in dating hell themselves; her apartment is in shambles thanks to a dotty carpenter; an unreliable ex-boyfriend has just reentered her life; and now someone is sending Bridget death threats--could it be Mark Darcy? If Bridget Jones's Diary was a modern riff on Pride and Prejudice, its sequel borrows several themes and devices (not to mention a section heading) from another Austen novel, Persuasion. And as in Austen's fiction, here the journey is the destination. A happy ending for Bridget and her pals is a foregone conclusion; how they get there, however, will have you on the edge of your chair--if you haven't already fallen off of it laughing. --Alix Wilber

From the Inside Flap

Read by Tracie Bennett
Three Cassettes, 5 hours

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is another laugh-out-loud look at the life of 90's Everywoman Bridget Jones.  Picking up where the blockbuster bestselling Bridget Jones's Diary left off, The Edge of Reason finds Bridget ensconced in an up and down relationship with Mark Darcy, whom she finally decided to give a chance at the end of the first book.  Bridget's best Singleton pals Jude and Shaz are on hand to dispense advise about men and relationships culled from the pages of GETTING THE LOVE YOU WANT and KEEPING THE LOVE YOU FIND, with unfortunate results.  And Bridget's Smug Married friend Magda still mixes phone calls with friends with instructions shouted at her kids:  "Bridget, hi!  I was just ringing to say in the potty!  Do it in the potty!"  Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason has all the charm and hearty laughs that made Diary such a smash.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0140298479
• ISBN 13: 9780140298475
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352