Pride and Prejudice

JANE AUSTEN
LevelS Retold by Evelyn Attwood Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

Pearson

Education

Limited

Contents
the world.

Edinburgh

Gate, Harlow, throughout

Essex CM20 2JE, England and Associared Companies

page
ISBN: 978-1-4058-6246-2

Introduction
First published in the Longman Simplified English Series 1945 Fiction 1993 1996 First published in Longman

v The Bennets New Neighbours at Netherfield Jane Gains an Admirer Mr Collins MrWickham The Ball at N etherfield Mr Collins Makes a Proposal of Marriage Netherfield Is Empty Mr Collins Makes Another Proposal 1 3 9 18 22 27 33 36 38 40 43 46 48 53 59 65 70 73 80 84 89

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

This adaptation first published

First published by Penguin Books 1999 This edition published 2008 57910864

Chapter 4
Penguin Books Ltd 1999 This edition copyright Pearson Education Ltd 2008
Text copyright

Chapter 5 Chapter 6

Typeset by Graphicraft Ltd, Hong Kong Set in 11/14pt Bembo

Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9

Printed in China

SWTCI04

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in. a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publishers.

Chapter 10 Jane Goes to London Chapter 11 Elizabeth Visits Hunsford Chapter 12 Lady Catherine de Bourgh

Published by Pearson Education

Ltd in association with

Penguin Books Ltd, both companies being subsidiaries of Pearson Pic

Chapter 13 Visitors to Rosings Chapter 14 Mr Darcy

Chapter 15 Elizabeth Receives a Letter Chapter 16 Elizabeth and Jane Return Home Chapter 17 The Regiment Leaves Meryton Chapter 18 Chapter 19
For a complete list of the titles vail bl . h P . P a a e In t e engum Readers series please write to your local earson Longman office Or to: Penguin Readers Marketing Department, Pearson Education, Edmburgh Gate, Harlow, Essex CM20 2JE, England.

Pemberley The Bingleys Lydia and Wickham Mr Gardiner Goes to London

Chapter 20 Chapter 21

Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Activities

Mr Bennet Returns Lydia and Wickham Are Found Mr Bennet Agrees to Their Marriage Return to Netherfield Lady Catherine Visits Longbourn Elizabeth and Mr Darcy The End

93 95 99 106 114 119 126 130

Introduction
'An unmarried man ciffortune - four orfive thousand a year. What a fine thingfor our girls!' When Mr Bingley decides to rent Netherfield Park, Mrs Bennet is delighted. She has five unmarried daughters, and a rich, single man in the area is very good news. Mr Bingley doesn't disappoint her. He fallsin love with Jane, the eldest and prettiest of the Bennet sisters, and everything seems to be going well. His only fault is his friendship with Mr Darcy, who is rich but very disagreeable. At the same time Elizabeth, the second sister,becomes friendly with a soldier called Wickham. He seems a good match for her quick intelligence and lively nature, and he tells shocking stories about Mr Darcy's bad character. Then, suddenly, Mr Bingley moves away and Jane is left with a broken heart. Elizabeth discovers that Mr Darcy was responsible for this sudden departure, and her already low opinion of him sinks even lower. But when disaster strikes the Bennet family and all hopes of finding good husbands for the girls seem lost, help comes in a very unexpected form. Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Steventon, a village in Hampshire in the south of England. She was the seventh of eight children. Her father, George Austen, was the minister of Steven ton Church. Although her mother was from a wealthy family, Jane's father had financial difficulties.There were usually paying guests in the parsonage to help support his large family. Jane spent the first twenty-five years of her life with parents in Steventon, where she learnt French, Italian, music needlework. She was taught by her father, who encouraged to read widely. The family also enjoyed performing plays, v her and her and

it seems that Jane took part enthusiastically in these. She began writing at the age of fourteen as entertainment for her family. When George Austen retired in 1801 the family moved to Bath, a busy, fashionable city often featured in Jane's stories. In both Hampshire and in Bath, she had a good social life. She attended parties and balls; she went on trips to the seaside; she visited London and other cities. She enjoyed male company and was considered quite pretty, but she never fell seriously in love. She became close to one man, but he had no fortune so was unable to marry her. Another, wealthier man made a marriage proposal;Jane accepted, but changed her mind the next day.She remained single. Jane was very close to her sister Cassandra , who was also unmarried, and to her brothers' children. Two of her brothers were church ministers and two had very high positions in the navy.A fifth brother, Edward, was heir to a rich cousin who left him houses and land in Kent and Hampshire. Jane often went to stay with Edward at his grand home in Kent. .When her father died in 1805,Jane moved back to Hampshire WIth her mother and sister, eventually living in a small house owned by her brother Edward. The last few years of Jane's life were affected by the development of the disease from which she died in 1817 at the age of forty-one. ' Jane Austen's life was relatively uneventful, but she used this to her advantage in he .. Sh r wntmg. e wrote about what she knew: the everyday livesand concerns of ordinary middle-class people. Austen's early w .ti fi n mg 0 ten made gentle fun of popular fiction. Her first book Love d F d hi an nen SIp, was completed in 1790 when ' J ane was only fifteen It I k d . . ' . wild! . . 00 e at the silliness of the typical, I Yb romantic fictional heroes of the time. The story which ater ecarne Northanger Abbe . y was wntten a few years later. The
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main character in this book loves reading novels, and as a result confuses literature with real life. Jane Austen's first attempt to get her work printed was a failure. In 1797, her father offered an early form of Pride and Prejudice to a friend in the book business, but the friend refused the story without even reading it. She continued to write, but it was fourteen years before her work was finally recognised outside her family circle. In 1811, Sense and Sensibility became the first of her novels to appear in print; she had started work on the story back in 1797. Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816) soon followed. Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were printed after her death in 1817. Jane Austen's name did not appear in the books that appeared in her lifetime because it was difficult for a female novelist to be taken seriously.Although the novels were fairly popular from the start, they only achieved the success that they deserved after her death. They are loved today for their sharply and humorously observed characters, for their amusing details of the manners and morals of the characters' social group, and for the love stories at their heart, which have always attracted readers and continue to do so today. Jane Austen lived in a world of firmly divided social classes.At the top were the nobles, with long family histories of wealth and power. Beneath them were gentlemen, who were less ~owerful than nobles but owned enough land and property to hve comfortably without a paid job. This was the social class to which most of Austen's characters belonged. . When a nobleman or a gentleman died, his property passed to his eld~stson. If there was no son, a nephew or cousin was usually the hen and, as in the Bennets' case, the man's wife and children could lose their ho me. R eIative Iy small amounts of money were .
Vll

left to the women

and younger

sons of the family. In the Darcy per year; his sister

does not disapprove of her character Charlotte

Lucas's decision to home.

family, for example, Mr Darcy had 10,000

marry the awful Mr Collins and gain a comfortable

was seen as an extremely rich young woman, but had the much smaller amount of 30,000 in total. Younger ~rmy. Even Important. church sons usually made in these Local landowners a living in the church however, responsible family needed were or the was professions, help

Of all her novels, Pride and Prejudice was probably Jane Austen's favourite. She called it her 'darling child' and she was particularly fond of Elizabeth Bennet, the story's main character, who shared Austen's own quick intelligence author's preference Although and lively sense of humour. The by the number of day, trust is shared today, judging have changed

for appointing rich and

ministers;

to get a good job, a man

powerful friends. To buy a position as an army officer you needed money; the richer you were, the higher your position was. Other 1 professions - the law: C . . ' lOr examp e - were less respectable, and a d ._C . . . life III business was co 'd . nSI ere very mrerior, even If It made you nch. Since most of the fa '1 . . rrn y money went to the eldest son, It was very Important for . young women to marry, and to marry well. d Marnage was for lif e, an most people hoped for a marriage based on lasting lov Oth . . . e. er consIderatIOns, however, were equally Important. Marriage w he umi as seen as t e umon not only of two A ' , . people, but also of two f mil' . . a res. good marnage, to someone of higher social po .ti SIIOn or greater wealth, brought added respect to the whole famil' 'b d' . . y, a a marnage had the opposite effect; an d any woman who liv d . h '. e wit a man outside marriage was not we 1come In hIgh . with her. SOCIety and dragged the whole family down And if the perfect marr' this ld b . Iage proposal never came? For women, cou e a senous pr bl to liv bl 0 em. Jane Austen herself was able e respecta y witho h her broth Ed d ut a usb and, thanks to the wealth of er war Many u . less lucky Th h . . nrnarned middle-class women were . ey ad to live wi th hei b ' . nl d 1 t eir rother s family as an unwanted ,u ove member of h h take low-paid k t e ouse. Many others had to wor , often as teach d h . . .. was lost forever. Alth h ers, an t err SOCIalpOSItIOn oug the auth h or c ose to remain single, she

successful films and television series of the story in recent years. social practices since Jane Austen's the main message of the novel is as important A person's true character few surprises. a first impression. Look beneath today as it ever was.

is hard to judge, and you cannot

the surface and you may find a

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