Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is one of the Victorian novels that was first published in 1813. This novel takes us to the era where women were deprived of their rights and were to stay at home as showpieces. They were to stay beautiful. Readers would be surprised to know that when this novel was published, Jane Austen’s direct name wasn’t revealed and she was never given the credit of it. It was written that from the author of Sense and Sensibility. With this, one can clearly make out the situation. Even some of the female novelists took pseudo names to get published. Lets dive into the details :

          

Cover- Well, I read the old as well as the new one. But I would certainly talk about the new one. This one appealed to me as we can see a girl beautifully dressed.

Title- Many of you might not be knowing that the title of the book was not Pride and Prejudice earlier. The author wanted to give it a name ‘First Impressions’ because while creating the characters she studied them through their first impressions only so it made sense to the title. But she while she was editing and re- writing her work she changed this and came up with Pride and Prejudice. The draft was written three times before given for final publication. Yes, we do find Prejudice in it and the Pride is seen too.

source: http://www.coursework.info/GCSE/English_Literature/Prose_Fiction/By_Author/Jane_Austen/Discuss_the_significance_of_the_title_L47547.html http://www.coursework.info/AS_and_A_Level/English_Literature/Prose/Pre-1900/Jane_Austen/Do_you_believe_that_Austen_s_final_title_L137043.html http://www.online-literature.com/austen/prideprejudice/

Setting- The setting takes place in various places like Hertfordshire, Derbyshire. These are the real places in England but the states mentioned in the book are fictional.

Plot- In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen creates a picture of the small, cocooned world of the middle class gentry — with their commonplace joys and their commonplace sorrows. The central concern of this “comedy of manners” is Mrs. Bennet’s dogged efforts to find suitable husbands for her eldest daughters. Of course, Mrs. Bennet’s judgements cannot be trusted, for she is a nagging wife, an ineffectual mother, and a social misfit throughout the novel. Her repeated and continued foolishness is one of the things that holds the plot together into a unified whole.

The plot’s focus on marriage is seen from the very beginning of the story. The arrival of Mr. Bingley, ‘a single man of large fortune’ at near-by Netherfield immediately fires the imagination of Mrs. Bennet. An acquaintance is struck and what follows is a series of parties, balls, and teas, which are very essential to the plot; it is at these social gatherings that the four main characters -Bingley and Jane and Darcy and Elizabeth – are brought together. They also serve to illustrate the culture, manners, fashions, pretensions, and snobberies of the English gentry at the time.

Themes- There are variety of themes which draws our attention. the first being the theme of Love. Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in English literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. The other theme is of reputation. Here Lydia is the mouthpiece of the author. When she elopes, the family feels betrayed and is more concerned about their reputation and status. Even they are ready to disown their own daughter. Further, the theme of class is related to reputation,in that both reflect the strictly regimented nature of life for the middle and upper classes in Regency England.

Characterisation- The author has done fabulous job in delineation of the characters. She has added life to the characters.Elizabeth is my favorite because she is so independent, headstrong and outspoken.  She refuses to marry for any reason other than love, even if that means she doesn’t end up marrying someone who can give her a better economic and social status.  She has her faults, but she is not afraid to admit to them when she knows she’s wrong.  Her mother and two of her younger sisters annoy her as much as they annoy me, and she can’t stand the snotty sisters of Mr. Bingley, whom I despise every time I read the book.  It is apparent from the first chapter that Elizabeth takes after her father, who is also headstrong and outspoken.  He loves to put his annoying wife in her place, but he does it in very humorous ways without being too nasty.  I get a lot of laughs out of Pride and Prejudice every time I read it, and most of those laughs are courtesy of Mr. Bennet.Finally, Mr. Darcy is infuriating and endearing at the same time.

Style- This novel is written in Horatian satire because she wanted to highlight the mannerisms of 18 th century through her characters like Mrs. Bennet being a foolish lady. She easily conveyed her message using  simple yet witty style. Even we could find traces of Romanticism in this piece of writing.

source : https://pride-and-prejudice-analysis.wikispaces.com/Writing+Style

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More about the book :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_and_Prejudice