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1813 · Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
A truth universally acknowledged and universally misunderstood.
1813Austen
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
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Quotes
Quotes · Pride and Prejudice
Passages worth saving.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
The most famous opening sentence in English literature and one of the most perfectly constructed. It says everything and means the opposite — the truth is not universal at all, it is the desperate projection of a society that has decided wealthy bachelors exist primarily as solutions to other people’s problems.p. Ch 1 “I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
Elizabeth says this about Darcy early in the novel, and it is the most honest thing she says about herself for a very long time. She does not dislike Darcy because he is proud. She dislikes him because his pride wounded hers. Austen puts the novel’s central irony in Elizabeth’s own mouth and Elizabeth does not notice it.p. Ch 5 “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
The worst proposal in literary history, and Austen knows it. Darcy opens with his own suffering, moves to his condescension, and arrives at love as if it is a problem he has failed to solve. Elizabeth’s refusal is the only possible response.p. Ch 34 “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.”
Everything the first proposal was not. No condescension, no self-congratulation, no performance of suffering. Just a man asking a question and meaning it. The contrast with the first proposal is the measure of how far Darcy has come.p. Ch 58 “I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.”
“I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.”p. ch 58 “Till this moment I never knew myself.”
“Till this moment I never knew myself.”p. Ch 36