Summary of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Description

Jane Austen’s popular novel Pride and Prejudice is an inversion of the classic love-at-first-sight cliche: Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet meet at a ball. Darcy isn’t amused; Elizabeth detests him immediately. Only after a slew of misunderstandings and a triumphant victory over pride and prejudices, do the two of them finally fall in love. Austen paints a detailed portrait of society in her place and time. She brings into sharp focus the limited world of the English landed gentry and merchant class in the Georgian period at the start of the 19th century – targeting the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness of her contemporaries with wit and irony. Yet, she also shows a great deal of empathy for the desperate situation of women whose only chance in life was to marry well. Austin, a clergyman’s daughter, faced this dilemma herself. She never married. Jane, her widowed mother and her sister lived in strained circumstances. Finally, she found security in her brother’s home, where she could write, though she was not known as an author until after her death. Her charming works have provided the blueprint for many of today’s romantic comedies, rivaled only by Shakespeare’s plays as a source of popular entertainment. This unique achievement is testimony to how well she mastered superbly entertaining her readers.

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Sujets

• Classics
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: GetAbstract AG
• Date de parution: 17 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9798887270463
• Langue: English

Extrait

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen•First edition: London 1813

Novel
social realism

Take-Aways Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1813, is the prototype of the romantic comedy. The Bennets have five daughters, but they lack sufficient means to arrange good marriages for them. The second oldest, Elizabeth, attracts the interest of the noble, fabulously wealthy Mr. Darcy with her wit and spirits, yet the pair becomes entangled in a web of class conceits, lies and misunderstandings. It is only when Elizabeth’s sister elopes with a wicked impostor that Darcy can save the day, restore her family’s honor and marry his beloved. The novel displays the limited options for women at the time it was written; they could either marry or resign themselves to somber spinsterhood. In Jane Austin’s world, a happy marriage requires two things: romantic love and material wealth. On their own, neither is enough. She wrote the first version of Pride and Prejudice when she was just 22, but the publisher rejected it outright. She rewrote the novel several times and published it anonymously 16 years later. Austin’s style of writing about normal people in ordinary circumstances makes her one of the founders of the modern novel. Her view was limited to the world she knew, that of the landed gentry, clergy and merchant class. Some criticized her as a reactionary for this. Others interpret her book’s perspective as a subtle satire on a society petrified by traditions and illusions. “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” (Darcy to Elizabeth)

What It’s About
The Romantic Comedy Model
Jane Austen’s popular novel Pride and Prejudice is an inversion of the classic love-at-first-sight cliche: Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet meet at a ball. Darcy isn’t amused; Elizabeth detests him immediately. Only after a slew of misunderstandings and a triumphant victory over pride and prejudices, do the two of them finally fall in love. Austen paints a detailed portrait of society in her place and time. She brings into sharp focus the limited world of the English landed gentry and merchant class in the Georgian period at the start of the 19th century – targeting the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness of her contemporaries with wit and irony. Yet, she also shows a great deal of empathy for the desperate situation of women whose only chance in life was to marry well. Austin, a clergyman’s daughter, faced this dilemma herself. She never married. Jane, her widowed mother and her sister lived in strained circumstances. Finally, she found security in her brother’s home, where she could write, though she was not known as an author until after her death. Her charming works have provided the blueprint for many of today’s romantic comedies, rivaled only by Shakespeare’s plays as a source of popular entertainment. This unique achievement is testimony to how well she mastered superbly entertaining her readers.

Summary
First Impressions
Mrs. Bennet has a problem: She has five daughters of marriageable age, but no dowry for any of them. Therefore, she’s glad to hear that a nearby property, Netherfield, has, at last, been rented. The new tenant is a young unmarried gentleman, Charles Bingley , who turns out to be a great catch. He is attractive, polite, open-minded and wealthy. At a ball, the local ladies jealously stand by as he lavishes attention on Jane , the oldest and most beautiful of the five Bennet sisters. His friend Fitzwilliam Darcy arouses mixed emotions: admiration at first, followed by aversion, since the tall, dark-haired man offends the locals with his arrogant, mocking ways.