Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen (1813)
“A comedy of manners with a razor underneath — Austen dismantles the marriage market her own survival depended on.”
At a Glance
In Regency England, Elizabeth Bennet — witty, independent, and the second of five daughters in a financially precarious family — sparks with the proud, wealthy Mr. Darcy. Their initial mutual dislike deepens through misunderstandings, class snobbery, a near-disastrous elopement involving her youngest sister, and a staggering letter that forces both of them to confront their own worst qualities. They eventually acknowledge they are exactly what the other needs.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Pride and Prejudice has never gone out of print since its first publication in 1813. It sold out its first edition within weeks and has been continuously in print for over two hundred years — an almost unique publishing record. It is the best-selling novel in English literary history by most measures, with over 20 million copies sold. It transformed what a novel could do with irony, interior consciousness, and social critique simultaneously, and established the template for the romantic comedy as a morally serious form.
Diction Profile
Formally elegant with persistent ironic undercutting — Latinate vocabulary in narration, social register varies sharply by character
Moderate by Romantic standards