Austen's most popular novel, the unforgettable story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy
Few have failed to be charmed by the witty and independent spirit of Elizabeth Bennet in Austen's beloved classic Pride and Prejudice. When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In...
Austen's most popular novel, the unforgettable story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy
Few have failed to be charmed by the witty and in...
Introduction and Notes by Dr Ian Littlewood, University of Sussex.
Pride and Prejudice, which opens with one of the most famous sentences in English Literature, is an ironic novel of manners. In it the garrulous and empty-headed Mrs Bennet has only one aim - that of finding a good match for each of her five daughters. In this she is mocked by her cynical and indolent husband.
With its wit, its social precision and, above all, its irresistible heroine, Pride and Prejudice has proved one of the most enduringly popular novels in the English...
Introduction and Notes by Dr Ian Littlewood, University of Sussex.
Pride and Prejudice, which opens with one of th...
Introduction and Notes by Professor Stephen Arkin, San Francisco University.
'Young women who have no economic or political power must attend to the serious business of contriving material security'. Jane Austen's sardonic humour lays bare the stratagems, the hypocrisy and the poignancy inherent in the struggle of two very different sisters to achieve respectability.
Sense and Sensibility is a delightful comedy of manners in which the sisters Elinor and Marianne represent these two qualities. Elinor's character is one of Augustan...
Introduction and Notes by Professor Stephen Arkin, San Francisco University.
With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Nicola Bradbury, University of Reading.
Jane Austen teased readers with the idea of a 'heroine whom no one but myself will much like', but Emma is irresistible. 'Handsome, clever, and rich', Emma is also an 'imaginist', 'on fire with speculation and foresight'. She sees the signs of romance all around her, but thinks she will never be married.
Her matchmaking maps out relationships that Jane Austen ironically tweaks into a clearer perspective. Judgement and imagination are matched in games the reader too can enjoy, and the...
With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Nicola Bradbury, University of Reading.
Na początku dziewiętnastego stulecia każdy niezbyt zamożny ojciec córek- zwłaszcza kiedy miał ich na przykład pięć - nader często musiał zadawać sobie pytanie: kiedyż to w sąsiedztwie pojawi się jakiś odpowiedni kawaler? A kiedy już się pojawił, następowały perypetie, które Jane Austen z upodobaniem opisywała.
Na początku dziewiętnastego stulecia każdy niezbyt zamożny ojciec córek- zwłaszcza kiedy miał ich na przykład pięć - nader często musiał z...
'Pride and Prejudice' is one of the best loved and most intimately known of Jane Austen's novels. Her sense of comedy and satire makes this an enduring classic of English literature.
'Pride and Prejudice' is one of the best loved and most intimately known of Jane Austen's novels. Her sense of comedy and satire makes this an endurin...
Introduction and Notes by Dr Ian Littlewood, University of Sussex.
Adultery is not a typical Jane Austen theme, but when it disturbs the relatively peaceful household at Mansfield Park, it has quite unexpected results.
The diffident and much put-upon heroine Fanny Price has to struggle to cope with the results, re-examining her own feelings while enduring the cheerful amorality, old-fashioned indifference and priggish disapproval of those around her.
Introduction and Notes by Dr Ian Littlewood, University of Sussex.
Adultery is not a typical Jane Austen theme, but when it...
Introduction and Notes by David Blair, University of Kent.
Northanger Abbey tells the story of a young girl, Catherine Morland who leaves her sheltered, rural home to enter the busy, sophisticated world of Bath in the late 1790s. Austen observes with insight and humour the interaction between Catherine and the various characters whom she meets there, and tracks her growing understanding of the world about her.
In this, her first full-length novel, Austen also fixes her sharp, ironic gaze on other kinds of contemporary novel, especially the Gothic...
Introduction and Notes by David Blair, University of Kent.
Northanger Abbey tells the story of a young girl, Cathe...
Introduction and Notes by Elaine Jordan, Reader in Literature, University of Essex.
What does persuasion mean - a firm belief, or the action of persuading someone to think something else? Anne Elliot is one of Austen's quietest heroines, but also one of the strongest and the most open to change. She lives at the time of the Napoleonic wars, a time of accident, adventure, the making of new fortunes and alliances.
A woman of no importance, she manoeuvres in her restricted circumstances as her long-time love Captain Wentworth did in the wars. Even though she is...
Introduction and Notes by Elaine Jordan, Reader in Literature, University of Essex.
The pride of high-ranking Mr Darcy and the prejudice of middle-class Elizabeth Bennet conduct an absorbing dance through the rigid social hierarchies of early-nineteenth-century England, with the passion of the two unlikely lovers growing as their union seems ever more improbable.
One of the most cherished love stories in English literature, Jane Austen's 1813 masterpiece has a lasting effect on everyone who reads it.
The pride of high-ranking Mr Darcy and the prejudice of middle-class Elizabeth Bennet conduct an absorbing dance through the rigid social hierarchi...
