Before You Begin

Before you begin.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." With that famous opening, Jane Austen sets all of Hertfordshire in motion: a wealthy bachelor takes Netherfield Park, a mother of five unmarried daughters scents her chance, and the quiet rituals of country society become a battlefield of wit, pride, and feeling.

At the centre stands Elizabeth Bennet, prized for her lively mind and her "fine eyes," and the proud, ten-thousand-a-year Mr. Darcy, whose forbidding manner masks a heart she is determined to dislike. Between assemblies and drawing-rooms, a charming officer, a fawning clergyman, and a formidable great lady all play their parts, while first impressions prove dangerously unreliable.

Published in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has never gone out of print. Austen wrote with an irony so precise and a sympathy so warm that two centuries later her people still feel like our neighbours — few novels have done more to make the comedy of manners an art.

This illustrated edition gathers the novel into six visual movements — recap plates you unlock as you read, each drawing together the characters, houses, and turns of the story so far, with never a glimpse of what lies ahead. Turn the page and step into Regency England as we have imagined it: the great cast assembled, the map of who loves, marries, and misjudges whom, and a gallery drawn straight from Austen's own lines.