Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813 and tells the story of a social world of complex customs, manners, behavioural conventions, values, and stratified society among the landed gentry of England in the 19th century.<br/><br/>Elizabeth Bennett is one of five daughters of the Bennett family living at their Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire. Their father Mr Bennett is a landed gentleman of a comfortable income, while Mrs Bennett lacks an inheritance, so the family face becoming poor upon Mr Bennett's death. Thus, it is imperative that at least one of the daughters must marry well to support the family and secure their future.<br/><br/>The arrival of Mr Bingley, a rich bachelor who rents the neighbouring Netherfield estate, gives Mrs Bennett hope that one of her daughters might contract an advantageous marriage, because "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife".<br/><br/>Social functions and chance encounters set the stage for flirtations and friendships, haughtiness and pomposity, attraction and rejection, rumour and gossip, twists of fate, and marriage proposals. Elizabeth learns that her hasty judgements have been misplaced all along, and that people are not who they first seem.<br/><br/>Matthew Leigh Embleton Editions 2023