DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

VISAKHAPATNAM, A.P., INDIA

PROJECT TITLE

BOOK REVIEW – THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

SUBJECT
ENGLISH

NAME OF THE FACULTY

Ms. BEENA PUNJABI

Name of the Candidate – AISHANI CHAKRABORTY

Roll No. – 19LLB118

Semester - 1
INTRODUCTION
Author – Lauren Weisberger

Title – Devil Wears Prada

Year – 1st

Theme –
The three main themes in this film are:
1) What is evil and how is it disguised in our daily life? One of the lead character’s name is
Miranda Priestly, but what does this name signify within the book’s culture? The character is
not very saintly or holy and she doesn’t apologize for her ruthless attitude. She believes that
everyone wants to live the life she lives, no questions asked. Whereas, Andy, isn’t quite as
sure about this as she strives to learn how to balance what she wants in her personal life with
what she is asked to do in her career by her over- demanding boss, Priestly. Andy strives to
keep her work from becoming who she is instead of what she does.

2) Self-doing what you HAVE to do in your work life vs. your personal ethics. Is change
always good, always bad or can there be a happy medium? How do you know the difference?
And how do you cope with the fact that more often than not to reach success your personal
life get compromised.

3) Sacrifice-we all sacrifice for our work life, but is it really worth it? What of ourselves are
we willing to cut loose in order to gain what it is that we want from our professional lives?

This book does a decent job of covering these themes in an interesting and entertaining way
without being preachy.

Genre – It is a Comedy- Drama

Purpose – The purpose of this book is to show whether a job is , even if it is one that you
have a passion for and can excel in , does it have enough value to sacrifice your whole life ?
It shows that what a person shows on the outside might not always be the person they are
from the inside. There can be various levels, various factors that contributed to that person
being the embodiment of the Devil.

It shows the very important and very relevant topic of today that is work life balance.

It shows industrial competition, the thirst to be on the top and the extent most of us are ready
to go to, to achieve the said “success”.

Overview –
A delightfully dishy novel about the all-time most impossible boss in the history of
impossible bosses.
Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, lands the job “a million girls would die
for.” Hired as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, fabulously successful editor
of "Runway "magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts "Prada! Armani!
Versace!" at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish
women and beautiful men clad in fine-ribbed turtlenecks and tight leather pants that show off
their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breath-taking ease, Miranda can turn each and
every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to complaints about
“The Boss from Hell.” Narrated in Andrea’s smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a
deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over
Cosmopolitans at the trendiest cocktail parties. From sending the latest, not-yet-in-stores
Harry Potter to Miranda’s children in Paris by private jet, to locating an unnamed antique
store where Miranda had at some point admired a vintage dresser, to serving lattes to Miranda
at precisely the piping hot temperature she prefers, Andrea is sorely tested each and every day
—and often late into the night with orders barked over the phone. She puts up with it all by
keeping her eyes on the prize: a recommendation from Miranda that will get Andrea a top job
at any magazine of her choosing. As things escalate from the merely unacceptable to the
downright outrageous, however, Andrea begins to realize that the job a million girls would
die for may just kill her. And even if she survives, she has to decide whether or not the job is
worth the price of her soul.
Summary –

Andrea Sachs, a recent graduate of Brown University with a degree in English, moves

to New York City with her best friend, Lily, a graduate student at Columbia. Andrea hopes to
find a career in publishing and blankets the city with her résumé. She believes she'll be closer
to her dream of working for The New Yorker if she can get a job in the magazine industry.
She gets a surprise interview at the Elias-Clark Group and is hired as junior assistant for
Miranda Priestly, editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine Runway. Although she knows little
of the fashion world, everyone tells her that "a million girls would die for [her] job". If she
manages to work for Miranda for a year, people tell her, she can have her choice of jobs
within the magazine industry.

At a celebrity party, Andrea meets Christian Collinsworth, a charismatic Yale graduate who

is considered one of the hot, new up-and-coming writers of their generation. They are
attracted to each other, which complicates her relationship with her boyfriend, Alex.

Andrea's relationships become entangled because of her new job. Lily increasingly turns
to alcohol and picks up dubious men to relieve the pressure of graduate school. Alex,
struggling with his own demanding job as an inner-city schoolteacher, grows frustrated with
Andrea's long hours and constant stress. Andrea's relationship with her family also suffers.
Matters finally come to a head when her co-worker, Emily, gets mononucleosis and Andrea
must travel to Paris with Miranda in her stead. In Paris, she has a surprise encounter with
Christian. Later that night, Miranda finally lets down her guard and asks Andrea what she has
learned, and where she wants to work afterwards. She promises to place phone calls to people
she knows at the New Yorker on Andrea's behalf once her year is up and suggests she take on
some small writing assignments at Runway.

Back at the hotel, Andrea gets urgent calls from Alex and her parents asking her to call them.
She does and learns that Lily is comatose after driving drunk and wrecking a car. Though her
family and Alex pressure her to return home, she tells Miranda she will honor her
commitment to Runway. Miranda is pleased, and says her future in magazine publishing is
bright, but phones with another impossible demand at Christian Dior's Paris fashion show.
Andrea decides that her family and friends are more important than her job, and realizes to
her horror that she is becoming more and more like Miranda. She refuses to comply with
Miranda's latest outrageous request, and when Miranda scolds her publicly. She is fired on
the spot, and returns home to reconnect with friends and family. Her romantic relationship
with Alex is beyond repair, but they remain friends. Lily recovers and is lucky to receive
only community service for her DUI charge.

In the last chapter Andrea learns her dispute with Miranda made her a minor celebrity when
the incident made "Page Six". Afraid she has been blacklisted from publishing for good, she
moves back with her parents. She works on short fiction and finances her unemployment with
profits made from reselling the designer clothing she was provided for her Paris
trip. Seventeen buys one of her stories. At the novel's end, she returns to the Elias-Clark
building to discuss a position at one of the company's other magazines and sees Miranda's
new junior assistant, who looks as harried and put-upon as she once did.

 Andrea "Andy" Sachs, a recent Brown graduate hired as junior personal assistant to

a powerful and tyrannical fashion magazine editor.
 Miranda Priestly, the British-born (as Miriam Princhek) editor-in-chief of Runway,
an influential fashion magazine published by the Elias-Clark company. She is known for
wearing a white Hermès scarf somewhere on her person every day, and treats her
subordinates in a manner that borders on emotional and psychological abuse.
 Emily Charlton, Miranda's former junior assistant, now her senior assistant. She and
Andrea have a conflicted relationship.
 Alex Fineman, Andrea's boyfriend, who teaches at an elementary school in the
South Bronx through Teach for America.
 Lily Goodwin, a free-spirited graduate student in Russian literature at Columbia with
curly black hair. She is Andrea's roommate.
 Nigel, a very tall gay British man who serves as Runway's creative director. He often
appears on television as a fashion consultant and is one of the few stars of the magazine
Andrea knows before she works there. He is a loud speaker with an outrageous sense of
style, and the only person who can get away with critiquing Miranda's personal wardrobe
choices.
 James, another gay man at Runway who works at the beauty department. He
befriends Andrea, and jokes about "calling in fat" on days when he feels unattractive.
 Jeffy, who oversees Runway's famous "Closet." The Closet is stocked with clothing
on loan from fashion designers for use in shoots, but is rarely returned and often
 "borrowed" by magazine staff. He is responsible for transforming Andrea's wardrobe so
she can fit in among the fashionable hallways of Runway offices.
 Hunter Tomlinson, a prominent New York tax attorney who is Miranda's current
husband (she is divorced from the father of her two daughters, a well-known British rock
star). As nice to Andrea and Emily as his wife is cruel, he is referred to by other close
associates of Miranda's as "B-DAD" behind his back, for Blind Deaf and Dumb—the
only way they could imagine anyone being able to live with her.
 Eduardo, a security guard at the Elias-Clark building, who playfully makes Andrea
or anyone else unfortunate enough to work as one of Miranda's personal assistants sing or
put on some sort of act before he lets them enter the building.
 Christian Collinsworth, a handsome young writer whom Andrea meets at a party.
They develop a mutual attraction.
 Caroline and Cassidy, the twin daughters Miranda dotes on.
 Cara, the girls' nanny, who saves Andrea's skin more than once but is eventually fired
by Miranda after she gives the twins a timeout in their bedroom for a bad attitude.
 Jill, Andrea's older sister, who is married and lives in Houston, where she has begun
to affect a Southern accent, much to Andrea's displeasure.
 The Clackers, the magazine's many female editorial staffers, mainly Allison (former
senior assistant, now beauty editor), Lucia (fashion department), Jocelyn (editorial),
and Stef (accessories). Andrea gives them their nickname for the sound their stiletto
heel shoes make on the marble floors of the Elias-Clark building.
 Benjamin, referred to as Benji. He is Lily's ex-boyfriend, but they have stayed in
touch despite their breakup. He was involved in the car accident with Lily.

CONCLUSION
It's a killer title: The Devil Wears Prada. And it's killer material: author Lauren Weisberger
did a stint as assistant to Anna Wintour, the all-powerful editor of Vogue magazine. Now
she's written a book, and this is its theme: narrator Andrea Sachs goes to work for Miranda
Priestly, the all-powerful editor of Runway magazine. Turns out Miranda is quite the
bossyboots. That's pretty much the extent of the novel, but it's plenty. Miranda's behavior is
so insanely over-the-top that it's a to see what she'll do next, and to try to guess which
incidents were culled from the real-life antics of the woman who's been called Anna
"Nuclear" Wintour. For instance, when Miranda goes to Paris for the collections, Andrea
receives a call back at the New York office (where, incidentally, she's not allowed to leave
her desk to eat or go to the bathroom, lest her boss should call). Miranda bellows over the
line: "I am standing in the pouring rain on the rue de Rivoli and my driver has vanished.
Vanished! Find him immediately!"

This kind of thing is delicious fun to read about, though not as well written as its obvious
antecedent, The Nanny Diaries. And therein lies the essential problem of the book. Andrea's
goal in life is to work for The New Yorker--she's only sticking it out with Miranda for a job
recommendation. But author Weisberger is such an inept, ungrammatical writer, you're
positively rooting for her fictional alter ego not to get anywhere near The New Yorker. Still,
Weisberger has certainly one-upped Me Times Three author Alex Witchel, whose magazine-
world novel never gave us the inside dope that was the book's whole raison d' etre. For the
most part, The Devil Wears Prada focuses on the outrageous Miranda Priestly, and she's an
irresistible spectacle.

CRITICAL COMMENT

The book is good for someone who wants a career in the field of fashion or even someone
who is not interested in fashion. This book has managed to show the truth about the fashion
industry, the dark side of the industry but it didn't show the positive impacts. The book is
filled with the wittiness of Andrea Sachs, which is kinda negative but it motivates you to
show up at work and thank God for not having Miranda Priestly as your boss. Overall, I
enjoyed the book but I wish it had tiny tinsy bit of positivity.

I would give the book a 4-star rating.