Pride and Prejudice is a novel by the English author Jane Austen. It was published anonymously in 1813. It ranks as Austen’s most popular work in its exploration of the social codes surrounding courtship and marriage in England during the early 1800’s.
Pride and Prejudice centers on members of a middle-class household. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have five unmarried daughters with little in the way of inheritable property. Therefore, Mrs. Bennet dedicates herself to finding suitably wealthy husbands for her girls.
The story focuses on a series of misunderstandings between one of the Bennet daughters, the intelligent and clever Elizabeth, and the wealthy and aristocratic Fitzwilliam Darcy. Although attracted to each other because of the power of their personalities, they initially present themselves as social antagonists. Elizabeth claims to resent Darcy because of his arrogant manner and his interference in the courtship between his friend Charles Bingley and Elizabeth’s sister Jane. Darcy is appalled by the general behavior of Elizabeth’s family, but cannot get Elizabeth out of his mind. He is moved by Elizabeth’s spirit and wit, and proposes marriage, but she rejects him. She feels the tone of his proposal suggests he would be marrying beneath him.
Months later, after Darcy helps her family out of an embarrassing scandal involving Elizabeth’s younger sister, pride and prejudice take on different dimensions. Darcy softens his pride in his wealth and social rank while Elizabeth abandons her prejudice against what she saw as Darcy’s snobbery. The two reconcile and marry.
In Pride and Prejudice, Austen is particularly shrewd and wise in her examination of social rivalries and class differences within English small-town society. The novel has many vivid characters besides Elizabeth and Darcy. They include the scatterbrained Mrs. Bennet, the aloof Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth’s four sisters, the haughty Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and the clergyman William Collins.
See also Austen, Jane.
