Summary:

Jane Austen’s „Pride and Prejudice“ is about the Bennet family. Mr and Mrs Bennet have five lovely daughters, but no money to give them. In order to be well settled their daughters must find husbands. Two wealthy and good-looking young men, Charles Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy, come to stay in the neighbourhood. To the vulgar Mrs Bennet’s delight[1], Bingley falls in love with Jane, her eldest daughter. Elizabeth, the second daughter, intelligent and witty[2], takes a dislike to Mr Darcy; she finds him cold and proud. She is more attracted to George Wickham, an army officer, and believes that Mr Darcy has treated him badly. But the proud Mr Darcy has fallen in love with her. He proposes to her and to his astonishment[3], she refuses him. Mr Darcy and Bingley then leave for London, leaving Jane broken-hearted.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth learns that Wickham is immoral and dishonest; Mr Darcy was in the right. Some months later she meets Darcy by accident and falls in love with him. Then she receives new that Lydia, her younger sister, has run away with Wickham. Darcy finds Wickham and forces him to marry Lydia. The story ends happily, with the marriage of Elizabeth to Darcy and Jane to Bingley.

About Jane Austen:

Born in 1775 in the Hampshire countryside, she was the seventh child in a family of eight. Her father, George Austen, was a clergyman[4]; the family was middle class and comfortably off. Jane Austen was educated at home and never lived apart from her family. She started writing novels for her family as a young teenager; even at that age her works were incisive[5] and elegantly expressed. The attractive, lively and witty young woman, much loved and respected by family and friends, never married, although she had received several proposals of marriage, and lived an uneventful life, happy to remain in the family home. Like many geniuses, Jane Austen died relatively young. She developed Addison’s disease and died in 1817 in Winchester, at the age of 41.

Jane Austen’s six complete adult novels were written in two distinct[6] periods:

First period (1796 - 1798): Sense and Sensibility (1811), the story of two sisters and their love affairs; Pride and Prejudice (1813); Northanger Abbey (1818), a satire on the highly popular Gothic romances of the late 18th century 

Second period (started in 1811): Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1816) and Persuasion (1818), all three deal with the romantic entanglement of their strongly characterized heroines Jane Austen’s brilliantly witty, elegantly structured satirical fiction marks the transition[7] in English literature from 18th-century neo-classicism to 19th-century romanticism.

Her works are satirical comedies about the middle and upper-middle classes. The plots are variations on a standard theme: a young woman’s courtship[8] and eventual marriage. By the end of every one of Austen’s novels the heroine has found a husband. The world she describes is small.

Because of her sensitivity to universal patterns[9] of human behaviour, Austen has been regarded by many critics as one of the greatest of all novelists.

Austen was a very careful writer and revised her novels many times. She writes clearly and incisively, with great wit[10]. Few writers combine this, as she does, with needle-sharp observation of human behaviour. The stories flow and are easy to read; she needs only a few words and the character lives on the page. Her dialogue is unequalled[11].

Background to the novel:

For a young woman of this period, marriage was the surest route to independence and freedom. Marriage to a wealthy man of good birth was the most desirable[12] position for a woman. Unmarried women living in their parents’ house (as Jane Austen was) were considered as second class citizens.

„Pride and Prejudice“ famously begins: „It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.“ Thus, the theme of the novel is stated in the very first sentence. As the story continues, marriage is examined from many points of view. Lydia and Wickham represent its most animal aspect, Jane and Bingley its most innocent. Elizabeth and Darcy represent its most spiritual aspect. Austen satirizes the Bennets’ marriage, and shows us maturity[13] in Mr and Mrs Gardiner. Mr Collins and Charlotte demonstrate the marriage of convenience[14].

First published in 1813, „Pride and Prejudice“ has consistently been Jane Austen’s most popular novel. The title of this book refers (among other things) to the ways in which Elizabeth and Darcy first view each other. It summarises the point on which the novel turns: it is because of Darcy’s „pride“ and Elizabeth’s „prejudice“ that the two characters misunderstand one another. The original version of the novel was written in 1796 - 1797 under the title „First Impressions“, and was probably in the form of an exchange of letters. „Pride and Prejudice“ is one of the most famous novels in the English language. It is both romance and witty social satire. There are few nineteenth century novels that speak in such a clear voice to the present day.

© 2000 Eva Schäfer

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