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Pride and Prejudice: A Novel by Jane Austin
Pride and Prejudice: A Novel by Jane Austin
Prejudice
A Novel by Jane Austin
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
• Pride and Prejudice, romantic novel by Jane Austen,
published anonymously in three volumes in 1813. A classic
of English literature, written with incisive wit and superb
character delineation, it centers on the turbulent
relationship between Elizabeth Bennet, the daughter of a
country gentleman, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a rich aristocratic
landowner.
About the Author:
JANE AUSTEN
• Born : December 16, 1775, Steventon, Hampshire,
England
• Died: July 18, 1817, Winchester, Hampshire
• English writer who first gave the novel its distinctly
modern character through her treatment of ordinary
people in everyday life.
• She published four novels during her lifetime: Sense and
Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield
Park (1814), and Emma (1815).
• Her novels defined the era’s novel of manners, but they also
became timeless classics that remained critical and popular
successes for over two centuries after her death.
About the Author:
JANE AUSTEN
• Before she was a writer, Jane Austen was a reader. A
reader, moreover, within a family of readers, who would
gather in her father’s rectory to read aloud from the
work of authors such as Samuel Johnson, Frances
Burney, and William Cowper—as well as, eventually,
Jane’s own works-in-progress.
• Like many authors, Jane Austen wrote Pride and
Prejudice about the life she knew: the complex world of
the gentry and rising middle class in England during her
lifetime. Many of the characters and situations in Pride
and Prejudice can be traced to circumstances in the
author's own experience.
CHARACTERS:
Elizabeth Bennet
- The novel’s protagonist. The second daughter
of Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth is the most intelligent
and sensible of the five Bennet sisters. She is
well read and quick-witted, with a tongue that
occasionally proves too sharp for her own good.
Her realization of Darcy’s essential goodness
eventually triumphs over her initial prejudice
against him.
CHARACTERS:
Fitzwilliam Darcy
- A wealthy gentleman, the master of
Pemberley, and the nephew of Lady Catherine
de Bourgh. Though Darcy is intelligent and
honest, his excess of pride causes him to look
down on his social inferiors. Over the course of
the novel, he tempers his class-consciousness
and learns to admire and love Elizabeth for her
strong character.
CHARACTERS:
JANE BENNET
CHARLES BINGLEY
MRS. BENNET
George Wickham
- A handsome, fortune-hunting militia officer.
Wickham’s good looks and charm attract
Elizabeth initially, but Darcy’s revelation about
Wickham’s disreputable past clues her in to his
true nature and simultaneously draws her closer
to Darcy.
CHARACTERS:
LYDIA BENNET
MR. WILLIAM
COLLINS
- A pompous, generally idiotic clergyman who
stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s property. Mr.
Collins’s own social status is nothing to brag
about, but he takes great pains to let everyone
and anyone know that Lady Catherine de Bourgh
serves as his patroness. He is the worst
combination of snobbish and obsequious.
CHARACTERS:
CAROLINE BINGLEY
CHARLOTTE LUCAS
- Elizabeth’s dear friend. Pragmatic where
Elizabeth is romantic, and also six years
older than Elizabeth, Charlotte does not
view love as the most vital component of a
marriage. She is more interested in having
a comfortable home. Thus, when Mr.
Collins proposes, she accepts.
CHARACTERS:
Georgiana Darcy
Mary Bennet
Catherine Bennet