Pride and Prejudice

About this book

Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen’s second published novel. It appeared in 1813, two years after Sense and Sensibility, and like that book it was issued without her name on the title page. Austen had drafted an early version, called First Impressions, in the late 1790s, and reworked it before publication. The novel follows the Bennet family of rural Hertfordshire, whose five daughters face an uncertain future because the family estate is entailed to a male cousin.

The book has stayed in print and in public affection for more than two centuries. Its appeal rests on a plot that is easy to follow, a heroine whose mistakes are understandable, and a narrative voice that treats its characters with irony without cruelty. It is also one of the most adapted novels in English, which keeps bringing new readers back to the source.

The story

Elizabeth Bennet is the second of five sisters in a household with a sensible, detached father and a mother whose chief project is getting her daughters married. When a wealthy young man, Mr. Bingley, rents a nearby estate, Mrs. Bennet sees an opportunity. Bingley is drawn to the eldest sister, Jane, but his friend Mr. Darcy makes a poor first impression on the neighborhood, and on Elizabeth in particular.

What follows is a sequence of balls, visits, letters, and misunderstandings. Elizabeth forms firm opinions about Darcy and about the charming officer George Wickham, and the novel traces how those opinions are tested. A pompous clergyman cousin, a domineering aristocratic patroness, and the reckless youngest sister, Lydia, all complicate matters before the plot resolves.

Themes and historical context

Austen wrote during the Regency period, when a gentleman’s daughter without a fortune had few respectable options besides marriage. The entail on Longbourn, which will pass the estate to Mr. Collins rather than to the Bennet daughters, is the pressure behind Mrs. Bennet’s anxiety and the plot as a whole. The novel is frank about money: incomes are stated in pounds per year, and characters weigh them openly.

The title points to the novel’s central concern with judgment. Elizabeth prides herself on reading people accurately, and the book shows how easily intelligence can harden into prejudice. Darcy’s reserve and Elizabeth’s quickness each produce errors that only time and new information correct. Austen’s irony falls on nearly everyone, including the heroine, which is part of why the book feels fair.

The novel sold well on publication and went into a second edition the same year. Austen’s reputation grew slowly through the nineteenth century and rose sharply in the twentieth; Pride and Prejudice is now usually treated as her most popular book.

Who should read it

This is the best starting point for readers who have never tried Austen or who find older novels slow. The sentences are long by modern standards but the vocabulary is clear, and much of the book is dialogue. It runs to roughly 120,000 words, divided into sixty-one short chapters, so it moves quickly. Expect social comedy, a small cast, and a plot built on conversation rather than incident. Readers who want action or wide historical scope should look elsewhere; readers who enjoy watching people misread one another will find plenty to hold them.

Edition notes

The Project Gutenberg text was produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team from images at the Internet Archive. It is the English original, unabridged.