Who it is for
Readers following character development, social satire, and the changing relationships around Chapter 1 will find this chapter especially useful.
English reader · Project Gutenberg #1342
Chapter 1
Pride and Prejudice. English-only reading by default; switch among English, Chinese, and Spanish, or compare languages side by side.
Chapter summary
This chapter advances the novel’s social and emotional action around Chapter 1, using dialogue, family expectations, and manners to reveal character motives and relationships. Its opening movement begins: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
Modern reader note
Read this chapter in its Regency social context. Courtship, inheritance, gender expectations, class manners, and family authority around Chapter 1 reflect the novel’s historical world rather than present-day norms.
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