Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen · 1775–1817 · England
Why it matters
The most perfect comic novel in English: courtship as a duel of intelligence, irony as a moral instrument. Its opening sentence is the most quoted in fiction, and its machinery of misjudgment and self-knowledge has never been improved upon.
At a glance
romancesatire
Difficulty 3/10medium pace432 pagesElegant but accessible prose; irony requires attention but sentences are clear.
Deep dive
Why the title's two vices belong to both leads at once, and what Austen's narrator is doing every time it slips inside a character's head without announcing it.
