Pride and Prejudice
novel by Austen
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Pride and Prejudice, a Novel by Jane Austen, was published anonymously in three volumes in 1813.
It centres on the burgeoning relationship between Elizabeth Bennet, the daughter of a country gentleman and the novel’s heroine, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, an aristocratic landowner. It is set in rural England at the turn of the 19th century, and it follows the Bennet family, which includes five very different sisters, all of whom their mother is keen to see suitably married. The intersections of these sisters with several eligible bachelors drive the action of the novel. Despite initial friction between them, Elizabeth eventually accepts Darcy’s proposal of marriage.
Pride and Prejudice were the second of four novels Austen published during her lifetime. It has remained popular since its first publication, and it has inspired various stage, film, and television productions.
Pride and Prejudice, a romantic novel by Jane Austen, was published anonymously in three volumes in 1813. A classic of English literature, written with an incisive wit and superb character delineation, it centres on the burgeoning relationship between Elizabeth Bennet, the daughter of a country gentleman, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a rich aristocratic landowner. Upon publication, Pride and Prejudice was well received by critics and readers. The first edition sold out within the first year, and it never went out of print.
Characters
Pride and Prejudice are set in rural England at the turn of the 19th century, and it follows the Bennet family, which includes five very different sisters. The eldest, Jane, is sweet-tempered and modest. She is her sister Elizabeth’s confidant and friend. Elizabeth, the heroine of the novel, is intelligent and high-spirited. She shares her father’s distaste for the conventional views of society as to the importance of wealth and rank. The third daughter, Mary, is plain, bookish, and pompous, while Lydia and Kitty, the two youngest, are flighty and immature.
Mr Bennet is the family patriarch. He is fond of his two eldest daughters—especially his favourite, Elizabeth—but takes a passive interest in the younger ones, ultimately failing to curb their childish instincts. An intelligent but eccentric and sarcastic man, he does not care for society’s conventions and mocks his wife’s obsession with finding suitable husbands for their daughters. As several scholars have noted, however, Mrs Bennet is rightfully concerned. Because of an entail, the modest family estate is to be inherited by William Collins, Mr Bennet’s nephew, who is the next male in line. Indeed, as Austen scholar Mary Evans noted, “If Mrs Bennett is slightly crazy, then perhaps she is so because she perceives more clearly than her husband the possible fate of her five daughters if they do not marry.” Unfortunately, Mrs Bennet’s fervour and indelicacy often work against her interests. A woman of little sense and much self-pity, she indulges her lively youngest daughters.
Throughout the novel, the Bennet sisters encounter several eligible bachelors, including Charles Bingley, Darcy, Lieutenant George Wickham, and Collins. Bingley has recently let Netherfield estate, which neighbours the Bennets’ home, Longbourn. Austen describes him as “good-looking and gentlemanlike; [having] a pleasant countenance and easy, unaffected manners.” He has come by his fortune through his family’s interest in trade, which was seen as a less respectable means of obtaining wealth than by inheriting it, as his friend Darcy has done. Darcy is clearly a product of this hierarchical thinking: he believes in the natural superiority of the wealthy landed gentry. He is arrogant but perceptive.
Darcy’s estates were once managed by Wickham’s father, but he and Wickham are no longer friendly. Wickham is attractive and charming, making him immediately popular among the women in the nearby town of Meryton, where he and other soldiers have been stationed. Collins, on the other hand, is “not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society.” He is a clergyman whose patron, the controlling Lady Catherine de Bourgh, is Darcy’s aunt.
Other supporting characters in the novel include Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte Lucas, who is described as sensible and nearing an age where marriage is unlikely; Charlotte’s parents, Sir William and Lady Lucas; Mrs Bennet’s brother, Edward Gardiner, who works in trade, and his wife, both of whom are generous and well-grounded; Bingley’s sisters, the snobbish and scheming Caroline and Louisa Hurst; and Darcy’s 16-year-old sister, Georgiana, who is painfully shy but good-humoured.
Summary
The novel opens with one of the most famous lines in English literature: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” The statement is seemingly what Mrs Bennet thinks as she sets her sights on the newly arrived Bingley, who she is sure will make a suitable husband for one of her daughters. At a ball, Bingley takes an immediate interest in the beautiful and shy Jane. The encounter between his friend Darcy and Elizabeth is less cordial. Although Austen shows them intrigued by each other, she reverses the convention of first impressions: the pride of rank and fortune and prejudices against the social inferiority of Elizabeth’s family hold Darcy aloof, while the pride of self-respect and prejudice against Darcy’s snobbery hold Elizabeth equally aloof.
Credit by: Sarah Dillon
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