CULTURE

All countries and families have its traditions, rules and prejudices. Bridgets’ ones are not exceptions. If you are more than 30 and you aren’t married you are under pressure. All friends are trying to find a couple for you. Your family makes you get acquainted with potential husbands, the richer the better. I think in the case our countries aren’t different. Everywhere society knows better what you need and when you need it. And if everyone says so it makes you think about it and feel loneliness. For filling the vacuum women usually watch shows or soap operas, like Blind Date and Casualty in Britain and its analogues in Russia, just not to think about their own problems.

During the entire book Bridget and her friends arranged dinner parties and organized great celebrations which aren’t so popular in Russia. Usually Russian people invite only good friends, but no more than 5 people. But Bridget invited friends, their boyfriends and even some people which are not enjoyable for her, that I find funny. And she had to cook for them difficult dishes which aren’t usual for anyone’s ration. It doesn’t become such headache in my motherland. The guests are already happy just to visit their friend and often they bring some food for not to complicate the life of the host. But the discussions are the same everywhere – men, clothes and friends who didn’t come. Even the party when Bridget wanted to wear a bunny girl outfit can be compared with mascarads which are widely spread in Russia.

It's interesting that the author mentions two english classic books - "Pride and Prejudices" and "Wuthering Heights" that are really important for engliesh culture, like books of Tolstoy and Pushkin poems for us. Actually all the book is full of comparison with "Pride and Prejudices" - features of the main characters, behaviour of the main female character's mother, feelings between two main heroes.

" It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party. It's like being called Heathcliff and insisting on spending the entire evening in the garden, shouting 'Cathy' and banging your head against a tree."

All in all, nothing differs so much that can shock, our countries aren’t far, most of people know about their culture by films, books, the Internet and I hope that British people know some true about our culture.

Letter Tom --------> Bridget

Adress <happybridget@gmail.com>

Topic - Gossips

Data - February,10

Dear Bridget,

I’m sorry I haven’t written you for ages because I was going to travel and didn’t have even a second to write. Now I’m here in Alabama but all in good time.

You remember I took part in a competition The Alternative Miss World and didn’t succeed but now I’m in the country which is free from prejudice and I’ll win it esrecially with such great support. You must remember my boyfriend Creepy Jerome and now he is my ex-boyfriend. I found my real only love. His name is Frederick and he is from France or Italy, I don’t remember exactly but he is a real Appolo. He is perfect and I thank God every day that I have a new perfect nose because we would never be together without that surgery. To tell the truth, now I’m planning to have plastic surgery to change my awful elephant ears. How could I have been living such all this years?

Anyway, how are you? Jude told me that you had problems with Mark and you even broke up? I hope that Daniel wasn't the cause, was he?  Remember – Inner Poise.

Sorry,I have to go to help my sweetie or he will burn our dinner( the same like you ( wrote it and realized how much I miss you))

XOXO,

Tom

Information Gap

Year

The book tells us about life of an Englishwoman during a year. But it’s not stated what exact year it is. We can suggest that it’s earlier than 2000 because Bridget and all her friends don’t have any mobile phones and computers. 

Flat

She lives alone in a flat which is always littered and she can’t ever find anything and the descriptions of her home bring to mind the image of studio apartment because everything is situated in one room. 

                                              Food

Bridget wants to pass for cookery expert but it seems that she eats mostly fast food like pizza, smoothie and sushi and for parties she tries to cook extravagant dishes like Veloute of Celery, Confit of Oranges and etc but instead she gets blue soup, omelette and marmalade because of a lack of practice.

Clothes

It’s clear that Bridget doesn’t have a perfect taste. Her clothes have a diapason from a leather skirt till Grandma's clothes. Mark Darcy is a lawyer that’s why he perhaps wears mostly elegant and dark suits except New Year’s parties. Best Bridget friend is a gay and I think his looks are fashionable and stylish. Her friend man-hater sure wears only trousers and nothing more feminine. Her ex- boyfriend Daniel must look like a dandy with elegant and expensive designer clothes.

Review of review

The review is taken from this website http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/227443.Bridget_Jones_s_Diary

"Gawd, this book was criminally hilarious. I sat in the doctor's office waiting room literally snorting into my Nine West handbag (there's something really metal about being a minimum wage worker who chooses to buy labels instead of food) as I cradled my Kobo in my lap, with Bridget Jones and her life of ridiculous shenanigans all over the black and white screen. Needless to say, the people I waited with were unimpressed. They are probably not the first to wonder why someone like me would carry anything as elegant as Nine West.
Sometimes I wonder that, too. 
Honestly? I took off a star because I was highly disappointed with the rushed and nonsensical ending. But the rest of this book? Pure gold. A little warning, though: this is not a shiny, polished tale of the stereotypical (and in real life, extremely rare) uptown and sophisticated south-English thirtysomething. It's an incredibly and often shamefully honest portrayal of a woman who likes sex and cigarettes and drinking and her foul-mouthed friends. It's not The Young Victoria. It's modern Britain, like nobody wants to see it.
Sure, it's a little ham-fisted in places. I won't say it doesn't idealize relationships, and get a little bizarre here and there. But who cares? I picked this book up expecting to be entertained. It exceeded those expectations."

I agree with the most of her arguments. Bridget doesn't look like a typical English woman; if I didn't know that the action takes place in Britain I would say that Bridget is from America. Because even now I have some stereotypes - British people are strict and a bit arrogant but all of them are gentlemen and Bridget sure differs from it. The book is absolutely fair to the imperfect woman but the end of the story is doubtful. She has found a prince and now their lives will be long and happy. The end is divorced from reality. But finally I can't argue that the book is mostly for entertainment. It shouldn't make you to think about the meaning of life. It's light reading for people who want to forget about their own problems by dipping to not so important for them Bridget's problems.

Character sketch

Mark Darcy

He is rich and handsome. He is a gentleman. His work is very prestigious – he is a successful lawyer. Mark is divorced and it could be a cause of disappointment in all women and usually he doesn’t trust them. He is under pressure of his parents who are looking for a new girlfriend or even wife for him. And their new victim is Bridget, they got acquaintance during New Year’s party and the first impression was not so pleasant because of his  a V-neck diamond-pattern in shades of yellow and blue( favoured by the more elderly of the nation's sports reporters) sweater,his haughtiness and Bridget's vulgarity.

“The rich, divorced-by-cruel-wife Mark – quite tall – was standing with his back to the room, scrutinizing the contents of the Alconburys' bookshelves: mainly leather-bound series of books about the Third Reich, which Geoffrey sends off for from Reader's Digest. It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party. It's like being called Heathcliff and insisting on spending the entire evening in the garden, shouting 'Cathy' and banging your head against a tree”

He didn’t like Bridget from the first sight perhaps he found her a bit stupid but later he started to protect her and prove that she is not so foolish as she looks.

Also he has difficult relationships with Daniel. They studied together and were a kind of friends but finally Daniel slept with his wife and it was the cause of their divorce and further hatred between the old friends. 

Most of Bridget's fiends don't like him because they judge according to her opinion but all people arround him see Mark outstanding and brainy creature. 

Questions and Answers + Phrase from text

Life goes on and Bridget’s adventures too. Her biggest dreams come true. First of all she get to her ideal weight  8st7 ( about 54kg). But all her friends start to ask about her health and if she is ill, her best friend even advises to return her old sizes what allow her officially eat all that she wants. The second important event is her boyfriend (Guess who he is, his name will be missed in the further sentences). So they become lovers. But he doesn’t accompany her at any parties, if she wants to have a picnic he begs her to stay home and watch TV. Obviously he gets what he wants. Why is it so? Does she love him so much? But such permissiveness does not bear fruit. Bridget wants to be married ( By the way, why does she want it? Is she ready for it or there is another reasons?) so her boyfriend is ready to make a proposal.

 But here is a snag. His future wife is a leggy blonde from NY. Not Bridget. Never Bridget. But why was he dating with her?

It’s interesting how Bridget knew about the future wife of her already ex-boyfriend. Actually Bridget caught them red handed. She returned after a party earlier than she wanted because of her unsuitable costume – everyone had tuxedos and beautiful dresses and she wore a bunny girl outfit. She didn’t go home afterwards and went to her lover ( to spoil the terrific evening even more). And firstly he just didn’t open the door that puzzled Bridget but she started to guess why

“In denial I told myself he was just laundering money or dealing in drugs. He was probably trying to hide polythene bags full of cocaine under floorboards helped by some smooth South American men with ponytails.”

Unfortunately, he was not only a drug dealer, he was unfaithful. Poor Bridget...

So they broke up.

What will Bridget do after? Can she forgive this skunk? Will she switch on her inner poise and coldness or she will be begging him to leave that blond and restart their relations?

About Bridget and other important characters

She is 30, she doesn’t have a family and even a boyfriend. She smokes, drinks and eats too much. There are no ambitions, self-confidence and any plans in her life. She is dreamy, spontaneous and unorganized. She is real.

 Her mother always interferes in her life and does everything to made Bridget to live as SHE wants. Does she try to make up leeway in her life? Oh yes. What is the result? She couldn’t change anything in Bridget’s life and decided to change hers – she left her husband, started to work on TV and even found a new boyfriend ( I would say that she is much more successful than our main character). Sure Bridget’s father suffers but how can she help them if she has much more problems
in life and has almost no experience?

 Also Bridget has a lot of friends. All the women read such books as “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” ( I’m not against the book but Helen Fielding expresses her point of view rather forthrightly), don’t give any useful pieces of advice and all in all they are not very clever. What help can it be if one is cheated by her husband, another is an absolute feminist, the relations of the third are absolutely unstable? Her only friend that seems to me pretty is a guy Tom who is a part of LGBT community.

Finally, there are two important men in the book – Daniel, her boss, and Mark Darcy, favorite of Bridge’s mother (familiar surname, isn’t it?).

Daniel Cleaver – HHH – handsome, hot, heinous. Bridget is in love with him but he is too good for her, at least I think so. Will they have any relations? Will she achieve this level?

Mark Darcy. Just recollect his namesake from Pride and Prejudice and you can understand who he is. Arrogant, overweening, clever but nice. Also he hates Daniel and disapproves any relations with him.

What side will be chosen by Bridget? Everyone knows that good girls prefer bad boys but she is too unexpected for such an obvious act.