Pride and Prejudice

A little about the story

Elizabeth Bennet has a quick eye for absurdity and little inclination to flatter a man simply because he is wealthy. When Mr Bingley and his reserved friend Mr Darcy arrive in the neighborhood, the Bennet household acquires a new supply of hopes, rumors, and uncomfortable encounters. Elizabeth’s first impressions seem clear enough, but the marriage prospects of five sisters make even a country dance a matter of consequence.

As friendships develop and apparently respectable people reveal unexpected sides of themselves, Elizabeth must question both the judgments of others and the confidence of her own. Jane Austen turns visits, letters, proposals, and family embarrassments into a sharply observed comedy of manners. Beneath the wit lies a serious concern with money, inheritance, and the limited choices available to women, giving the romance an emotional and social tension that extends well beyond the question of who will marry whom.

Things You May Not Know About Pride and Prejudice

• An earlier title. Austen first drafted the novel as First Impressions in the 1790s, years before revising it for publication.
• An anonymous first edition. The 1813 title page identified its writer through Sense and Sensibility rather than printing Jane Austen’s name.
• Originally three volumes. The novel first reached readers as a three-volume publication, a familiar format in the nineteenth-century book trade.
• Property drives the pressure. The Bennet estate is entailed away from the daughters, making inheritance a practical concern behind the marriage conversations.
• Letters change the evidence. Important information arrives through correspondence, allowing Austen to challenge judgments formed from appearances and secondhand accounts.