Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

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CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Oct 30, 2009 - Fiction - 222 pages
"Pride and Prejudice" is Jane Austen's greatest masterpiece, a sharp and witty comedy of manners played out in early 19th Century English society a world where men held the power and women were required to negotiate mine-fields of social status, respectability, wealth, love, and sex in order to marry to their own liking and the advantage of their family. Such is particularly the case of the Bennetts, the family of daughters featured in "Pride and Prejudice." Their father's estate will be left to a distant relative, at which point they stand to lose everything. This battle of the sexes in "Pride and Prejudice" is largely seen through the eyes of second daughter Elizabeth, who possesses a razor-sharp wit and rich sense of humor and finds herself pursued by the rich but annoying Mr. Darcy, and hindered by her own dim-witted mother and her sister Jane's hopeless love for the wealthy Mr. Bingley. One of the funniest novels ever written, "Pride and Prejudice" is peopled with memorable characters brought vividly to life as they both succeed and fail according to the manners of their era. "Pride and Prejudice" is a masterpiece of wit and style; a timeless novel for the ages.

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About the author (2009)

Jane Austen's life is striking for the contrast between the great works she wrote in secret and the outward appearance of being quite dull and ordinary. Austen was born in the small English town of Steventon in Hampshire, and educated at home by her clergyman father. She was deeply devoted to her family. For a short time, the Austens lived in the resort city of Bath, but when her father died, they returned to Steventon, where Austen lived until her death at the age of 41. Austen was drawn to literature early, she began writing novels that satirized both the writers and the manners of the 1790's. Her sharp sense of humor and keen eye for the ridiculous in human behavior gave her works lasting appeal. She is at her best in such books as Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816), in which she examines and often ridicules the behavior of small groups of middle-class characters. Austen relies heavily on conversations among her characters to reveal their personalities, and at times her novels read almost like plays. Several of them have, in fact, been made into films. She is considered to be one of the most beloved British authors.

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