The document provides a book review and analysis of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. It summarizes the plot, setting, themes of pride and social class, characters, and Austen's criticism of the gender injustices faced by women in 19th century English society. The review examines how the characters of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy overcome their initial pride and prejudices to find love.

1. Book Review
By Jane Austen
Submitted by:
Samia Arshad and
Isbah Abdul Malik XI-G

2.  Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817)
was an English novelist whose works of romantic
fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a
place as one of the most widely read writers in
English literature.
 She was educated primarily by her father and
older brothers as well as through her own reading.
 Her works include Sense and Sensibility(1811),
Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park(1814)
and Emma (1816). She also wrote Northanger
Abbey and Persuasion, both published in 1818,
and began writing Sanditon, but died before
completing it.
 Her plots mostly highlight the dependence of
women on marriage to secure social standing and
economic security.
 She earned little fame during her lifetime but the
publication in 1869 of her nephew's A Memoir of
Jane Austen introduced her to a wider public and it
was by 1940s that she became widely accepted in
academia as a great English writer.

3. SETTING
In the story the readers are taken to different
towns and places but the story is set in
England at
large.
Following are the places discussed in the
novel.
 Longbourn: The Bennet family estate near
the town of Meryton. It will be inherited by Mr.
Collins when Mr. Bennet dies.
 Netherfield: Bingley's estate near Longbourn
and near the town of Meryton.
 Meryton: Town near Longbourn where
Mrs.Phillips lives and the soldiers are

4.  Rosings: Lady Catherine De Bourgh's estate in
Hunsford. Mr. Collins has a parish near this
estate, and Elizabeth visits Rosings while she is
visiting Charlotte.
 Pemberley: Mr. Darcy's estate in Derbyshire.
 Hertfordshire: The county, where Longbourn,
Netherfield, and Meryton are all located.
 Hunsford: The town where Charlotte and Mr.
Collins live.
 Brighton: The town to which the soldiers from
Meryton are moved.
 Derbyshire: The county where Mr. Darcy's
estate, Pemberly, is located.

6.  As said in the words of Mary at the beginning of the novel, "human nature is
particularly prone to [pride]" (Volume I, Chapter 5). In the novel, pride prevents
the characters from seeing the truth of a situation and from achieving
happiness in life.
 Pride is one of the main barriers that creates an obstacle to Elizabeth and
Darcy's marriage. Darcy's pride in his position in society leads him initially to
scorn anyone outside of his own social circle.
 Elizabeth's vanity clouds her judgment, making her prone to think ill of Darcy
and to think well of Wickham.
 In the end, Elizabeth's rebukes of Darcy help him to realize his fault and to
change accordingly, as demonstrated in his genuinely friendly treatment of the
Gardiners, whom he previously would have scorned because of their low
social class.
 Darcy's letter shows Elizabeth that her judgments were wrong and she
realizes that they were based on vanity, not on reason.

7.  Pride and prejudice are intimately related in the novel. As critic A.
Walton Litz comments, "in Pride and Prejudice one cannot equate
Darcy with Pride, or Elizabeth with Prejudice; Darcy's pride of place
is founded on social prejudice, while Elizabeth's initial prejudice
against him is rooted in pride of her own quick perceptions."
 However, Darcy tries to overcome his prejudice as it is demonstrated
when he treats the Gardiners with great civility. The Gardiners are a
much lower class than Darcy, because Mr. Gardiner is a lawyer and
must practice a trade to earn a living, rather than living off of the
interest of an estate as gentlemen do.
 From the beginning of the novel Elizabeth prides herself on her keen
ability for perception. Yet this supposed ability is often lacking, as in
Elizabeth's judgments of Darcy and Wickham.

8.  Austen is critical of the gender injustices
present in 19th century English society.
 The novel demonstrates how women such as
Charlotte need to marry simply in order to gain
financial security.
 The entailment of the Longbourn estate is an
extreme hardship on the Bennet family, and is
quite obviously unjust. The entailment of Mr.
Bennet's estate leaves his daughters in a poor
financial situation which both requires them to
marry and makes it more difficult to marry well.
 Clearly, Austen believes that woman are at
least as intelligent and capable as men, and
considers their inferior status in society to be
unjust. She herself went against convention by
remaining single and earning a living through
her novels.

9.  Austen portrays the family as primarily responsible for the
intellectual and moral education of children. Mr. and Mrs.
Bennet's failure to provide this education for their daughters leads
to the utter shamelessness, foolishness, and immorality of Lydia.
 Elizabeth and Jane have managed to develop virtue and strong
characters in spite of the negligence of their parents, perhaps
through the help of their studies and the good influence of Mr.
and Mrs. Gardiner, who are the only relatives in the novel that
take a serious concern in the girls' well-being and provide sound
guidance.
 Elizabeth and Jane are constantly forced to put up with the
foolishness and poor judgment of their mother and the sarcastic
indifference of their father.
 Even when Elizabeth advises her father not to allow Lydia to go
to Brighton, he ignores the advice because he thinks it would be
too difficult to deal with Lydia's complaining.
 The result is the scandal of Lydia's elopement with Wickham.

10.  Considerations of class are omnipresent in
the novel.
 Darcy's inordinate pride is based on his
extreme class-consciousness. Yet eventually
he sees that factors other than wealth
determine who truly belongs in the
aristocracy.
 Those such as Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst,
who are born into the aristocracy, are idle,
mean-spirited and annoying, Mr. and Mrs.
Gardiner are not members of the aristocracy
in terms of wealth or birth but are natural
aristocrats by virtue of their intelligence,
good-breeding and virtue.
 The comic formality of Mr. Collins and his
obsequious relationship with Lady Catherine
serve as a satire class consciousness and
social formalities.

11.  The novel portrays a world in which society takes an interest
in the private virtue of its members.
 When Lydia elopes with Wickham, therefore, it is scandal to
the whole society and an injury to entire Bennet family.
 Darcy considers his failure to expose the wickedness of
Wickham's character to be a breach of his social duty
because if Wickham's true character had been known others
would not have been so easily deceived by him.
 While Austen is critical of society's ability to judge properly, as
demonstrated especially in their judgments of Wickham and
Darcy, she does believe that society has a crucial role in
promoting virtue.
 Austen has a profound sense that individuals are social
beings and that their happiness is found through relationships
with others.
 According to critic Richard Simpson, Austen has a "thorough
consciousness that man is a social being, and that apart from
society there is not even the individual."

12. Characters
 Elizabeth Bennet
- The novel’s protagonist.
- second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet.
- most intelligent and sensible
- Her realization of Darcy’s essential goodness
eventually triumphs over her initial prejudice

13.  Fitzwilliam Darcy
-He is Bingley's best friend and the nephew
of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. He is a very
wealthy, handsome, and proud bachelor.
-He is viewed as rude and conceited by all
the inhabitants of Meryton.
-He is intelligent and honest but his pride
causes him to look down on his social
inferiors.
“….for almost all his actions may be traced
to pride;-and pride has often been his best
friend.”(George Wickham-vol. I ch.16)
-However, Darcy gradually tempers his
class-consciousness and eventually falls
in love with, and marries Elizabeth.

14.  Jane Bennet
-The eldest and most beautiful Bennet
sister.
-Jane is more reserved and gentler than
Elizabeth.
-She is later married to Mr.Bingley.
 Charles Bingley
Mr. Bingley is a wealthy,
young bachelor who moves into the
Bennet's neighborhood.
-His purchase of Netherfield, an estate near
the Bennets, serves as the momentum for
the novel.
-His friendly nature contrasts with Darcy’s
initially rude behavior.
-He is uncaring about class differences.

15.  Mr. Bennet -
-The patriarch of the Bennet family
-He has very little interest in the duties of
polite society or in raising his daughters. For
example, when Elizabeth rejects Mr. Collins’
proposal, Mrs. Bennet asks for her
husband’s opinion but he merely replies
“…what am I to do on the occasion? It
seems an hopeless business” (Mr. Bennet-
vol. I ch.20)
-He finds his wife and his three youngest
daughters to be unbearably silly, but
Elizabeth and Jane make him proud.

16.  Mrs. Bennet -
-She is a foolish, noisy woman whose greatest
aspiration is to have her five daughters married
off.
-Mrs. Bennet does not approve of Elizabeth's logic
and practicality, and Elizabeth is her least favorite
daughter.
“Elizabeth was the least dear to her of all her
children….”(vol. I-ch.18)
 Mary Bennet - The middle Bennet sister who is
very bookish. She is the only one of the Bennet
girls who remains unmarried.
 Catherine Bennet - The fourth Bennet sister.
Like Lydia, she is girlishly enthralled with the
soldiers.
 Lydia Bennet
-The youngest Bennet sister.
-She is gossipy, immature and self-involved. In the
end she marries George Wickham.

17.  George Wickham
-A handsome, fortune-hunting militia
officer.
-Wickham’s good looks and charm attract
Elizabeth initially. He convinces her that
he was greatly wronged by Mr. Darcy,
but soon she learns of his true character,
and realizes that she has been mistaken.
-Wickham later marries Lydia after they
run away together.
 Mr. Collins
-A pompous clergyman who is Mr.
Bennet's cousin and will inherit his
estate when Mr. Bennet dies

18.  Charlotte Lucas - Elizabeth’s dear
friend. Charlotte does not view love as
the most vital component of a
marriage and is more interested in
having a comfortable home. Thus,
when Mr. Collins proposes, she
accepts.
 Sir William Lucas: He is Charlotte's
father.
 Maria Lucas-is Charlotte's younger
sister.

19.  Miss Bingley - Bingley’s snobbish sister.
She bears inordinate disdain for
Elizabeth’s middle-class background.
 Mrs. Hurst: She is Bingley's older, married
sister who is just as two-faced as Miss
Bingley.
 Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner - Mrs. Bennet’s
brother and his wife. They are caring,
nurturing, and full of common sense.
- Mrs. Gardiner and Elizabeth are quite
close because Elizabeth's own mother is
silly while Mrs. Gardiner is more thoughtful
and practical like Elizabeth.
- Mr. Gardiner tries to find Lydia and
Wickham when they have run away
together.

20.  Lady Catherine de Bourgh - A rich, bossy
noblewoman who is Darcy's wealthy aunt and
Collins' patroness. She greatly illustrates class
snobbery as she is a forceful lady who
expects everyone to appreciate and follow her
advice on every topic.
 Miss De Bourgh- Miss De Bourgh is Darcy's
cousin and Lady Catherine's daughter.
 Georgiana Darcy - Darcy’s sister. She is
immensely pretty and just as shy. She is wary
because she was almost conned into eloping
with Mr. Wickham, which would have been a
grave mistake. She has great skills at playing
the pianoforte.
 Colonel Fitzwilliam: Col. Fitzwilliam is
Darcy's cousin and also co-guardian of Miss
Darcy, Darcy's little sister.

21. Bibliography
 www.google.com/images
 http://en.wikipedia.org/