Pride and Prejudice is the most famous of Jane Austen's novels, and its opening is one of the most famous lines in English literature - "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." - a sentence filled with irony and playfulness.
"The most beloved novel in the language" - The New Yorker
Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 romantic novel by Jane Austen. It charts the emotional development of the protagonist Elizabeth Bennet, who learns the error of making hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between the superficial and the essential. The comedy of the writing lies in the depiction of manners, education, marriage and money during the Regency era in Britain.
Jane Austen's opening line, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife", is a sentence filled with irony and playfulness. The novel revolves around the importance of marrying for love, not simply for money, despite the social pressures to make a good (i.e., wealthy) match.
Pride and Prejudice has long fascinated readers, consistently appearing near the top of lists of "most-loved books" among literary scholars and the general public. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, with over 20 million copies sold - and paved the way for many archetypes that abound in modern literature.
"The beauty of Austen's novels lies partly in their clever opacity and complex irreducibility." - The Guardian
"The most perfect artist among women, the writer whose books are immortal" - Virginia Woolf
