Katerina: Pride and Prejudice

Title: Pride and Prejudice

Author: Jane Austen

Copyright date: January 1813

Number of pages: 311

Genre: "Classics"



"Pride and Prejudice" is a story of life among English gentility during the Georgian era. Mr. Bennet is a gentleman living in Hardfordshire with his foolish wife and his five daughters including Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia. Unfortunately for the Bennets, if Mr. Bennet dies, their house will be inherited by a distant cousin they have never met, so the family`s future happiness and security depends on the daughters to make good marriages.
Life is uneventful untill the arrival in the neighbourhood of a rich gentleman called Mr.Bingley who rents a large house so he can spend the summer in the country with his sister Ms.Bingley and his best friend Mr.Darcy. When Mrs.Bennet hears about their new neighbours she, immidiately, asks her husband to go and visit them so that the newcomers could meet their daughters.
The whole family is very impressed of Mr.Bingley because of his friendly and kind nature, especially Jane who is attracted to him and finds him the most handsome and generous man she has ever met. They both like each other and soon fall in love. In contrast to his friend, the wealthy and arrogant Mr.Darcy isn`t admired at and doesn`t like the Bennets. The strong-willed Elizabeth really dislikes him because of his pride, prejudice about country people and negative moods, so she hardly tries to ignore him or just be polite.
Soon after, the Bennets are visited by Mr.Collins - the cousin that is going to inherite their estate if Mr.Bennet eventually dies. During his visit he is attracted to Elizabeth and proposes to her ,but she refuses because of her crush on an military officer called George Wickham. Feeling sad and rejected, Collins decides to marry Eliza`s best friend Charlotte because she is from a poor family and won`t say no. They like each other and after the wedding they start living on their own in his house and are a happy family.
One day the Bennet family recieves a letter from Ms.Bingley in which she says that they are leaving the town and won`t come back. Jane feels really depressed and sad about the letter because it ends her hope to get married to Mr.Bingley. Everybody is confused and wonder why Bingley would do such a thing when it is a clear that he is in love with the oldest of the Bennet sisters.
Meanwhile Mr.Wickham tells Eliza that he and Darcy grew up together and Darcy`s father last wish was Wickham to become a priest. However the young Darcy didn`t gave Wickham money or opportunities to become a priest ,so he joined the military. She feels very angry and disappointed and starts to think that Darcy was the one that separated her sister and Bingley.
In the spring, Elizabeth goes to Kent where she stays at Mr. and Mrs.Collins house. There she meets Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her daughter Ann. For her bad surprise Mr.Darcy is Lady de Bourgh`s nephew and she meets him again in Kent. One day Darcy comes to visit Lizzy in the Collins` house and proposes to her. She is thunderstruck and quickly refuses. Darcy becomes very angry and wants to know why is his love rejected , for he was sure she won`t refuse. Elizabeth tells him that she doesn`t like him as a person and finds him very cruel because of the awful things he did to her sister and Mr.Wickham.
The next day she recieves a letter from Darcy in which he tells about Wickham`s advantage of women especially Darcy`s little sister Georgiana. He also explains why did he separated Jane and Bingley because he heard her mother was talking about marriage of convenience.
Elizabeth is too confused but while the time goes by she starts feeling a little better about Darcy and even finds him handsome and generous person especially when she figures out that he has found the foolish Lydia and Wickham who had run away and made him marry her.
Soon after that Bingley, his sister and Darcy decide to go back to Hardfordshire which opens a new opportunity for both Jane and Eliza. A few days after his arrival Bingley finally proposes to Jane whose feelings are still the same so she gladly says yes. Mrs.Bennet is extremely happy because two of her daughters have tied the knot already.
In the next few days Mr.Darcy and Elizabeth often walk aroung in the park and talk about the new happy couple when he asks her if her feelings about him had changed ,so she tells him that after she read the letter and knew more about him she thinks he is a very good person and she is in love with him. They decide to get married and explain that to everyone. The Bennets are really surprised because all of them knew Lizzy disliked the man that now she`s about to marry, so she explaines to all of them that her prejudices lied to her and she is in love with Darcy.


I really enjoyed while reading "Pride and Prejudice" and I was hypnotized by Jane Austen`s style which was a little bit hard to understand sometimes. Elizabeth Bennet made great impression to me and I think that she is a very good example of behavior. I was very surprised from the end of the novel and I realized that in this world of hypocrits, fools and cruel people it`s possible to find good friends and true love.

This is the third Jane Austen book that I have read and I understand that every one of them has its different message to the reader and gives him a good life lesson.