The most-read novel in English. Five sisters, one entail, an absurd cousin, a charming villain, and a man whose first impression nobody forgives.
| Elizabeth Bennet | Second daughter; quick-witted, candid, the heroine through whose eyes most of the novel is filtered. |
| Fitzwilliam Darcy | Wealthy master of Pemberley; proud at first, transformed by Elizabeth’s rebuke. |
| Jane Bennet | Eldest daughter; gentle, beautiful, slow to assume the worst of anyone. |
| Charles Bingley | Darcy’s amiable friend; falls for Jane, is steered away by his sisters and Darcy, then returns. |
| Mr. Bennet | The girls’ father; sardonic, intelligent, withdrawn from his family by choice. |
| Mrs. Bennet | Their mother; consumed by the urgency of marrying her daughters off before the entail removes Longbourn. |
| Mary, Catherine (Kitty), Lydia Bennet | The three younger sisters — bookish, suggestible, and reckless, in that order. |
| Mr. Collins | The cousin who will inherit Longbourn under the entail. Pompous, self-important, married to Charlotte. |
| Lady Catherine de Bourgh | Darcy’s aunt and Collins’s patroness. Imperious; the novel’s great comic obstacle. |
| George Wickham | Charming militia officer; the villain. Imposes himself on Elizabeth’s good opinion before being unmasked. |
| Charlotte Lucas | Elizabeth’s closest friend; marries Collins for security — one of Austen’s sharpest character studies. |
| Georgiana Darcy | Darcy’s shy younger sister; nearly the victim of Wickham’s earlier scheme. |
| Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner | Elizabeth’s aunt and uncle; the novel’s exemplars of a happy and intelligent marriage. |
Austen’s working title. Both Elizabeth and Darcy must un-make their initial readings of one another.
The novel ranges every kind of marriage: prudential (Charlotte/Collins), reckless (Lydia/Wickham), companionate (Jane/Bingley), and earned (Elizabeth/Darcy).
Lady Catherine’s brittle hierarchy versus the Gardiners’ warmer middle-class respectability.
The Bennet daughters’ futures are dictated by an inheritance law that excludes them.
Wickham’s charm exposes how easily Elizabeth’s best instincts can be played.
Austen called the finished book her “own darling Child.” It has now sold over 20 million copies, ranked second in the BBC’s 2003 “UK’s Best-Loved Book” poll, and is the most-adapted Austen novel.
| Year | Production | Cast / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1940 | MGM | Greer Garson & Laurence Olivier; screenplay by Aldous Huxley |
| 1980 | BBC television | Elizabeth Garvie & David Rintoul |
| 1995 | BBC / A&E | Jennifer Ehle & Colin Firth — the lake scene; Andrew Davies’s screenplay; the most influential televised Austen |
| 2005 | Working Title / Joe Wright | Keira Knightley & Matthew Macfadyen; Donald Sutherland; the dawn proposal |
| 2001 | Bridget Jones’s Diary | A modern P&P with Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth as a lawyer named Mark Darcy |
For deep guides to individual adaptations — cast, awards, fidelity to novel, where to watch — see the Adaptations index.
Read all 61 chapters of Pride and Prejudice, hosted on Austen.com since the 1990s.
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