Set in England in the late 18th century, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s five unmarried daughters after two gentlemen have moved into their neighborhood: the rich and eligible Mr. Bingley, and his status-conscious friend, the even more rich and eligible Mr. Darcy. While Bingley takes an immediate liking to the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, Darcy is disdainful of local society and repeatedly clashes with the Bennets’ lively second daughter, Elizabeth.
Jane Austen is one of the most widely read authors of English literature and there is no doubt in my mind as to why this is true. She had a lot to say about women and society in England during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Pride and Prejudice is quite comic and it paints a clear picture of how women who lacked their own fortune oftentimes had to forsake love to marry for economic security and social status.
Jane Austen’s romantic masterpiece, Pride and Prejudice, is an absolute joy to read and study for teens who are open to the pleasures of 19th-century prose and manners. The plot and characters are engaging for teens, and the book is worth revisiting at any age. Several film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice are also well worth seeing, including the 2005 movie starring Keira Knightley and the superb 1995 BBC series featuring Colin Firth as Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth. However, young people will get maximum enjoyment from this story if they read.
Austen gives you brave and good heroes and heroines, despicable villains, a decent dose of comic relief, a great and complex plot, and plenty of suspense of the mostly restrained, emotional variety. Austen’s clever observations and dialogue contribute to her brilliance in developing fully formed characters, despite the polite manners throughout. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are two of the most romantic and memorable characters in the whole of English literature, and their story never fails to entertain.
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