Pride and Prejudice, which opens with one of the most famous sentences in English literature, is an ironic novel of manners. In it the garrulous and empty-headed Mrs Bennet has only one aim - that of finding a good match for each of her five daughters. In this she is mocked by the witty cynicisms of her indolent husband.
One of her daughters, Elizabeth, becomes prejudiced against her future suitor Darcy, because of his arrogance and uncalled-for interference with his friend Bingley's courtship of her sister Jane. In spite of this, Darcy falls in love with Elizabeth – a blow to his pride – proposes, but is rejected. However, his sensitive assistance when Lydia Bennet elopes, dissolves Elizabeth's prejudice, and the two are reconciled.
The vivid delineations of provincial middle-class attitudes, moral firmness and the author's sense of comic and satirical ridicule make Pride and Prejudice one of the enduring classics of the English language.