Pride and Prejudice
CBC Books | | Posted: April 24, 2017 7:18 PM | Last Updated: April 24, 2017
Jane Austen
Spirited Elizabeth Bennet is one of a family of five daughters, and with no male heir, the Bennet estate must someday pass to their priggish cousin William Collins.
Therefore, the girls must marry well— and thus is launched the story of Elizabeth and the arrogant bachelor Mr. Darcy, in a novel renowned as the epitome of romance and wit.
In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships,gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.
Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's masterwork, an entertaining portrait of matrimonial rites and rivalries, timeless in its hilarity and its honesty. (From Penguin Random House)
Jane Austen died on July 18, 1817, leaving behind a body of work that has inspired readers for hundreds of years. Her seven novels, including Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility, have sold millions of copies around the world and inspired dozens of adaptations on film, television, stage and more.
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From the book
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?"
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
"But it is," returned she, "for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it."
Mr. Bennet made no aswer.
"Do not you want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.
From Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ©1995. Published by Vintage Classics.