When people ask me about my favorite novel, I only ever have one answer. In some ways I wish it were Middlemarch or Rebecca or something, because those books are very long, and as a result of this, people think you are intelligent if you have managed to get through them with anything coherent to say.
But unfortunately for me, George Eliot doesn’t at any point go off on one about Dorothea’s potentially problematic drinking, nor does Daphne du Maurier’s titular heroine moon a TV camera by inelegantly sliding down a fire station pole. And seeing as both are essential to my enjoyment of any piece of literature, my heart truly could only ever belong to one book: Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding.
Initially adapted from Fielding’s column in The Independent—the fictional diary entries of a single London everywoman (though of course Bridget, being white and monied, sees the world through a very specific lens)—the novel was first published in 1996. And despite the specificity of Bridget’s perspective, Fielding’s descriptions of her adventures in professional incompetence and practical underwear proved to be so infectious as to be zeitgeist-capturing. For almost three decades now, the name “Bridget Jones” has been synonymous with the experiences of single women in their 30s.
I am 29, meaning that Bridget Jones as an archetype of singleness has been around for nearly my whole life (I first read the novel as a teenager). While Fielding has updated the character a couple of times in sequels and one-off columns, Bridget’s original iteration is the one that lingers. Considering, then, that both dating and circumstances for single people in general have changed a lot since the mid-1990s, it seems worth checking in. Is this supposed bible of singleness still applicable now? Or is the world just too different?
Then: Relying on awkward meet-cutes to find love
Now: Relying on even more awkward dating-app encounters
Dating apps don’t define how all couples meet in 2023, but they do probably comprise the biggest change in dating culture since Bridget Jones’s Diary was published back in 1996. So while fate does still intervene for many these days, we can’t all expect to encounter sexy and virtuous human rights lawyers (who end up being played by a young, Bambi-eyed Colin Firth) at Boxing Day turkey curry buffets. As such, when our everyday social circles aren’t throwing up the goods, digital means represent other ways into dating.
The apps are a strange phenomenon, because while for some they provide welcome alternatives to wallowing in heartbreak or boredom, for others their transactional nature can simply be a bit depressing. I know people who’ve never used dating apps because they hate the idea, as well as others who are in long-term relationships because of a couple of Sliding Doors-moment Hinge likes. Whatever your opinion, we can all agree that, while they provide a more convenient means of meeting someone, the reality of that is nearly always just as awkward as a Christmas sweater-clad IRL meet up.
Then: Enjoying a flirtation with your boss over Instant Messenger
Now: Emailing HR
Online flirtation isn’t totally missing from Bridget’s world. In one of the book’s funniest and most enduring sequences, she becomes romantically embroiled with her boss Daniel Cleaver in an exchange that begins when he IMs her: “Message Jones: You appear to have forgotten your skirt. As I think is made perfectly clear in your contract of employment, staff are expected to be fully dressed at all times. Cleave.”
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