Jane Austen, the author of the novel £ Pride and Prejudice, was born in 1775, and lived the quiet country life of an English middle-class family of the time, hardly touched by outside events, even the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. It is this life that she describes in her half-dozen novels. Her world is a small one, but it is described with truth and with a sharp observation of human weaknesses. In spite of some differences in customs and manners, the characters in her books seem as natural to us now as they did to her friends and readers in her own time. This novel is the best known and best loved of her writings. It was written in 1796. She had written several other books, like Sense and Sensibility (1795), Mansfield Park (1812), Emma (1814), Persuasion, (1816) and so on. .
Content.
This novel is mainly about the marriages of the five daughters of Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet.
They were Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine, and Lydia. Jane was the most beautiful one of the five. Moreover, Elizabeth was the one with great brightness. .
One day, an unmarried young man with great fortune, Mr. Bingley, came to Netherfield. This news excited the Bennets, especially Mrs. Bennet. She was thinking about the young man marrying one of her daughters. In the ball held by Mr. Bingley, he and Jane fell in love with each other. There was another rich handsome unmarried young man, Mr. Darcy, in the ball. He was very proud. This pride even made Elizabeth feel that he was a difficult person. After several meetings, especially his great help to her younger sister Lydia, she changed her opinion on Mr. Darcy. In addition, Mr. Darcy changed his behavior to please her. At last, they became a happy pair. So did Mr. Bingley and her elder sister Jane. .
In this story, an interesting character was called Mr. Collins who was Mr. Bennet's cousin. We could see his character just through the first letter he wrote to Mr. Bennet.
