Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

Classic

The incipit of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is world-famous, even among those who haven’t read the novel. I’ve come to believe it might be too famous; the words repeated so often, they’ve started to lose their meaning and sound hollow.

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 the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

Pride and Prejudice, volume I, chapter I

It’s a pity, because this is such a brilliant and humorous opening! It makes the reader dive straight into the (gentry) Regency world of the novel and it prompts us to ask questions:

Is it really a truth universally acknowledged? By whom? Clearly not the eligible bachelors themselves, because as the very next line tells us, “However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be…” what matters is that this truth is “fixed in the minds of the surrounding families” who consider him “the rightful property” of one of their daughters.

The irony of the reversal here is clear: yes, a bachelor might need a wife sooner or later, but it’s the young women who truly need a husband of good fortune; their livelihood, in the absence of a father or a brother, depends on their marriage.

This is a truth that Austen knew intimately, because—unmarried—she came to depend entirely upon her brother when her father died.

The seriousness of the problem underlies each and every sentence in the novel, but Austen doesn’t let it drag down the narration; her style is witty and brilliant from the start: the first scene is almost theatrical in its push-and-pull between Mr and Mrs Bennet.

A new event or discovery always keep the story moving forward; and when feelings grow and characters mature, the introspective descriptions make them come alive.

We learn that Elizabeth, the protagonist, doesn’t have much faith in the institution of marriage because the example closest to her—that of her parents—is that of a failed relationship, where incommunicability and incompatibility are the only things left.

There are many free versions of the book to read online if you don't have a copy available: here I found one in English with a parallel text translation into Italian, and here is its Project Gutenberg page with download options.

Have you read Pride and Prejudice? Will you put it on your tbr if not?