Title

Austen: ‘Pride and Prejudice’

Authors

Files

Description

A brief commentary prepared by Laura Vorachek, PhD, Associate Professor, English, on the following work:

Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
1813; One of only five copies in the original boards

Comments

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”With this iconic sentence and a delightfully ironic tone, Jane Austen began Pride and Prejudice, which, despite an initial rejection by a publisher sight unseen, became her most successful and most celebrated novel. Austen “lopt & cropt” the manuscript and sold it 16 years later; the first printing in January 1813 quickly sold out, and a second edition appeared that November.In the 1880s, after a nephew published a memoir about Austen, interest in her work grew again, and Pride and Prejudice’s popularity has never wavered.The omniscient narrator’s “universal truth,” in fact, reflects the attitudes of only a particular community; it is, Austen slyly indicates, women of no fortune who want husbands, not men of good fortune who need wives.

Permission Statement

This item and all others in the Imprints and Impressions collection are licensed for research, educational and private use. Proper attribution must be used when downloading or reproducing this content. If you wish to use the materials for other purposes, please contact University of Dayton Libraries to obtain permission: 937-229-4221.

Streaming Media

Contents of Streaming Media

Laura Vorachek, associate professor of English, reads a selection.