First published in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has consistently
been
Jane
Austen's most popular novel. It portrays life in the genteel rural
society of the day, and tells of the initial misunderstandings and later
mutual enlightenment between Elizabeth
Bennet (whose liveliness and quick wit have often attracted readers) and
the haughty Darcy. The title
Pride and Prejudice
refers (among other things) to the ways in which
Elizabeth and
Darcy first view each other. The
original version of the novel was written in 1796-1797 under the title
First Impressions, and was probably in the
form of an exchange of letters.
Jane Austen's own tongue-in-cheek opinion of
her work, in a letter to her sister
Cassandra immediately after its publication, was: "Upon the whole... I am
well satisfied enough. The work is rather too light, and bright, and
sparkling; it wants [i.e. needs] shade; it wants to be stretched out here and
there with a long chapter of sense, if it could be had; if not, of solemn
specious nonsense, about something unconnected with the story: an essay on
writing, a critique on Walter Scott, or the
history of Buonaparté, or anything that would form a contrast and bring
the reader with increased delight to the playfulness and general epigrammatism
of the general style".
It has been pointed out that since Chapter 1 is marked up pretty much the
same way as any other chapter, those who have never read Pride and
Prejudice before may find a confusing plethora of links in the first few
chapters -- don't feel you have to click on everything.
If you have a graphics browser, then you will see little mini-icons
preceding links in some menus in the Pride and Prejudice
hypertext (and elsewhere in the Jane Austen pages):
A down-arrow indicates a link to the next subdocument in a series (or to
a later point, often the end, in the current subdocument).
An up-arrow indicates a link to the preceding subdocument in a series (or
to an earlier point, often the beginning, in the current subdocument).
A curvy back-arrow indicates a jump back to a superordinate document
(often a higher-level table of contents).
A rightwards-pointing arrow indicates all other links (i.e. links to a
subdocument subordinate to the current one, or random "sideways" links).
One practical point is that when web browsers follow a link, they tend to
put the text referenced by the link at the extreme top of the screen or
window, which can be a little awkward for a document which includes many
links which go to the middle of a paragraph, as this one does. When you have
followed a link, and the promised topic of the link doesn't seem to
immediately leap into prominence, look near or at the top of the window, and
then scroll back a few lines if necessary to get the immediate context of the
reference. On the other hand, when there is a reference to a location near
the end of an HTML file, some browsers (including the most
frequently used graphic browsers!) will put the end of the file at the bottom
of the window, with no indication of where in the window the target location
is. (Complain to the software companies about these annoying browser
peculiarities.)
Links to passages illustrating the themes of Pride and Prejudice.
The links in this index lead to passages referring to the themes of
Pride and Prejudice. The origin of the phrase "Pride and
Prejudice" is the fifth volume of Fanny
Burney's 1782 novel Cecilia, as discussed in an appendix to
R.W. Chapman's 1923 edition of Pride
and Prejudice.
Jane
Austen's most popular novel. It portrays life in the genteel rural
society of the day, and tells of the initial misunderstandings and later
mutual enlightenment between Elizabeth
Bennet (whose liveliness and quick wit have often attracted readers) and
the haughty Darcy. The title
Pride and Prejudice
refers (among other things) to the ways in which
Elizabeth and
Darcy first view each other. The
original version of the novel was written in 1796-1797 under the title
First Impressions, and was probably in the
form of an exchange of letters.
Jump to the Pride and Prejudice table of contents.
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