Pride & Prejudice

Written in the quiet of the English countryside… with literary thunder in her pen.

Jane Austen first drafted Pride and Prejudice in 1796, when she was just 20 years old and living at Steventon Rectory in Hampshire. She called it First Impressions then—a fitting title, considering how much of the story pivots on exactly that. Though the manuscript was completed quickly, it would sit unpublished for over fifteen years. By the time it was finally released in 1813, Austen was 37, living in Chawton Cottage with her mother and sister, and writing in the now-famous squeaky parlor where her brilliance bloomed in secret.

And bloom it did.

The Story
Pride and Prejudice is the novel that gave the world Elizabeth Bennet—clever, defiant, and delightfully unimpressed by pomp—and Mr. Darcy, the human embodiment of emotional repression in a cravat.

When Lizzy meets Darcy at a country ball, she finds him arrogant, proud, and altogether unbearable. He finds her tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt him—which, in terms of historical insults, is right up there with dueling someone’s honor.

But fate (and the English social hierarchy) has plans. As misunderstandings mount and truths are uncovered, pride is wounded, prejudice is dismantled, and both must reckon with how far they’ll go for love—not just of each other, but of something greater: self-awareness.

It is a romantic comedy of manners, yes. But it’s also a masterclass in timing, irony, and the terrifying thrill of being truly seen.