"Elizabeth Bennet is Austen's most liberated and unambiguously appealing heroine, and Pride and Prejudice has remained over most of the past two centuries Austen's most popular novel. The story turns on the marriage prospects of the five daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet: Elizabeth forms a prejudice against the proud and distant Mr. Darcy; Darcy's charming friend Charles Bingley falls in love with her sister Jane, and the handsome officer George Wickham forms attachments successively to Elizabeth and to her sister Lydia."--Jacket

Introduction -- Jane Austen and her time: a brief chronology -- A note on the text -- Pride and prejudice -- Appendix A: Parliamentary debate on the Marriage Act of 1754 -- Appendix B: :From the conduct books (Sermons to young women (1766) / James Fordyce ; A father's legacy (1774) / John Gregory) -- Appendix C: Burke on the French Revolution (1790) -- Appendix D: Discussion of women's role after the French Revolution (A vindication of the rights of women (1792) / Mary Wollstonecraft ; Strictures on female education (1799) / Hannah More) -- Appendix E: Domestic tourism (Seats of the nobility (1799) / William Watts ; Sketch of a tour into Derbyshire (1777) / William Bray) -- Appendix F: The militia regiments on the south coast of England in 1793-95 : women, officers, men -- Appendix G: Austen's letters to her sister -- Appendix H: Contemporary periodical reviews of Pride and prejudice (The British critic ; The critical review) -- Select bibliography