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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Pride and Prejudice
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(1813)
Novel by Jane *Austen with the best-known opening sentence in English fiction: 'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.' An early version of the book was written in 1796–7 under the title First Impressions. Of various wrong first impressions, the most important is that which the lively and intelligent Elizabeth Bennet forms of FitzWilliam Darcy; like his friend Charles Bingley (to whom the opening sentence applies), Darcy is a single man in possession of a very good fortune.
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But his haughtiness and Elizabeth's dignity (his is the pride, hers the prejudice) keep them apart until the end of the book, when at last they come happily together – as do a more easy-going couple, Bingley and Elizabeth's sister Jane. Meanwhile a third sister, Lydia, has eloped with an endearing adventurer, George Wickham. Mr and Mrs Bennet, the parents, are an ill-matched couple; he is a detached and wise friend to Elizabeth, while her mother remains relentlessly shallow and ambitious. Subsidiary characters include the self-important clergyman, William Collins, who pays court to Elizabeth; and the imperious Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Darcy's aunt and the patron of Mr Collins.
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