Bridget Jones's Diary: A Novel

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Viking, 1998 - Fiction - 271 pages
"130 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds overnight? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier (repulsive, horrifying notion)); alcohol units 2 (excellent) cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow); number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)?"

This laugh-out-loud chronicle charts a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a single girl on a permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement--in which she resolves to: visit the gym three times a week not merely to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult, and not fall for any of the following: misogynists, megalomaniacs, adulterers, workaholics, chauvinists or perverts. And learn to program the VCR.

Caught between her Singleton friends, who are all convinced they will end up dying alone and found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian, and the Smug Marrieds, whose dinner parties offer ever-new opportunities for humiliation, Bridget struggles to keep her life on an even keel (or at least afloat). Through it all, she will have her readers helpless with laughter and shouting, "BRIDGET JONES IS ME!"

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About the author (1998)

Helen Fielding was born in Morley, West Yorkshire, England on February 19, 1958. She studied English at Oxford University. After college, she got a job working for the BBC television studios. She worked for numerous years as a newspaper and TV journalist. Her first book, Cause Celeb, was based on the experiences she had while filming documentaries in Africa for Comic Relief. Her other books include Bridget Jones's Diary, The Edge of Reason, Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, Mad about the Boy, and Bridget Jones's Baby. She co-wrote the screenplays for the movies Bridget Jones's Diary and the sequel based on The Edge of Reason. She has received several awards including British Book of the Year in 1997 and the Evening Standard Award Best Screenplay in 2002. She works as a full-time novelist and screenwriter.

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