Bridget Jones's Diary: A Book Review

Bridget Jones’ Diary is a novel written in 1996 by British author Helen Fielding. This book is set in London and follows the life of 34-year old Bridget Jones. Written in the form of a diary, this novel is able to explore a myriad of themes including love, friendship, maturity, self-improvement, and body insecurity. 

Bridget Jones’ Diary guides readers through twelve months in Bridget’s somewhat normal, somewhat crazy life. The novel starts off with quite a long list of Bridget’s New Year’s Resolutions, the most important being “I will stop smoking”, “I will drink no more than fourteen alcohol units a week”, “I will reduce circumference of thighs by 3 inches”, and “I will not obsess over Daniel Cleaver.” To keep track of her progress, at the beginning of every diary entry, Bridget writes down her weight, how many cigarettes she smoked that day, how many alcohol units she consumed, and how many calories she ate. She also writes down the details of her romantic progress with Daniel Cleaver, the boss of the publishing company she works at. The first chapter of the novel, “An Exceptionally Bad Start”, quickly provides readers with a taste of Bridget’s hilarious but capricious personality. From the beginning, it is quite obvious that Bridget Jones is not very good at upholding resolutions. The rest of the novel explores the ups and downs of Bridget’s life, focusing on her toxic relationship with Cleaver, the breakdown of her parents’ relationship, and the start of an unlikely bond with Mark Darcy, a human rights lawyer whom Bridget views as a rich snob. 

Personally, I found this novel to be very entertaining but frustrating at the same time. To begin, I thought Bridget was absolutely hilarious because of how brutally honest she was about both herself and others. One of my favorite witty remarks of hers is “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.” Bridget’s blunt sense of humor made it extremely easy to love her as a protagonist. Moving on, I absolutely loved how Helen Fielding consistently illustrated the stark contrast between Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy. Mark’s maturity and poise made Daniel seem like the epitome of a crude “playboy”, leading me to eagerly root for Mark and Bridget’s relationship. However, although I enjoyed these aspects of the novel, there were also some parts that I did not like as much. First, over the course of the novel, Bridget consistently decides her self-worth solely based on one factor—her weight. I found Bridget’s obsession with her body and appearance to be quite self-destructive, and I really hated how she constantly called herself a pig. Another aspect of the novel that I did not like was Helen Fielding’s habit of leaving out the pronoun in a sentence. For example, instead of saying “I am hungry”, Fielding writes, “Am hungry.” I understand that this is a stylistic choice, but it simply was not my cup of tea. 

In conclusion, the British novel Bridget Jones’ Diary is not simply a book made of silly journal entries; it is a romantic work that explores the themes of love, friendship, and self-improvement through the lens of 34-year old publisher Bridget Jones. Anyone who comes across this book will fall in love with the chaos and absurdity of Bridget Jones’ life.