His Pride and Her Prejudice

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife..."

So starts the best love story ever told.

Jane Austen writes this shining piece of romantic literature, Pride and Prejudice, considered as one of her greatest masterpiece. It has the highest fan base among all her novels.

Set in early 19th Century in a society where women were born and raised to meet specific requirements to be eligible for matrimony. They were artistic, musical, all loveliness and graceful submission. Because unlike the men of the era, it is only in marriage that a woman can claim to have a respectable social status and an easy access to wealth.

The Bennett family of Hertfordshire has not one, not two, but five daughters of marriageable age. The book is largely centered on one of the daughters, Elizabeth, the second eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Elizabeth is a down-to-earth, level-headed woman of quick wit. She is considered as her father's favorite among her sisters and is known throughout Hertfordshire as a handsome and intelligent woman. Elizabeth's best friend is her own sister, the eldest, the equally sensible but more reserved Jane Bennet. She is the sister who is blessed with the most fair looks that easily outshadows any other girl in the country.

The story begins when the Bennet household is driven to an uproar when news arrived that a young man from London, of incredible wealth and of good character, is coming to Hertfordshire to purchase and move in the vacant Netherfield Estate. And Mrs. Bennet was bent on this young gentleman marry one of her five daughters, especially Jane, that she begins to plan schemes to hook this man and ensnare him forever.

The newcomers were welcomed in a small ball held in the Lucases ballroom. Mr. Charles Bingley, the new owner of Netherfield, reveals himself to be a good natured man and is immediately taken to the whimsical atmosphere of Hertfordshire. While his glamorous sisters, Miss Caroline Bingley and Mrs. Louisa Hurst, are less than thrilled to move from London to what they deem as a remote 'barbaric' countryside. Mr. Bingley is accompanied by Mr. Hurst and the aloof and disdainful Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy of Derbyshire

Mr. Bingley and his company are very well received with the neighbors, especially Mrs. Bennet as she perceives that Bingley shows a sure partiality to her eldest, Jane. Mr. Darcy, however, earned the scorn of Elizabeth Bennet with his untoward comment and his coldness to the people in the room. To his chagrin, he finds himself drawn to this enigmatic and witty woman with dark, captivating eyes. Unaware of Darcy's growing feelings for her, she continuously argues and contradict Darcy's point with her own ideas, vexing Darcy but yet holding him in place. She begins to dislike Darcy an even higher kind of vehemence, as she gets to know a certain soldier by the name of George Wickham, and about his story in the supposedly cruel hands of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.

I have to stop now or else I'll reveal everything about this already! It's just so fascinating for me and I absolutely adore the story so much. There's nothing I love most than to read the book again and again when I need something romantic to inspire me and brighten my day!

This novel is entirely a battle-of-the-sexes type between Elizabeth Bennet, a woman of independent thought, with an arsenal of strong wit and a clever humor, going against the formidably aristocratic and proud Fitzwilliam Darcy, who matches her in intelligence and stubborn streak.