Sparks ignite when spirited Elizabeth Bennet meets rich, eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy. But Elizabeth, and her four unmarried sisters prejudge Mr. Darcy''s genteel wit as proud, ill nature, while he battles with his pride, falling in love with a woman beneath his class. Can the two lovers overcome their prejudice and their pride? The most-read novel of all time lives in this beautiful illustrated edition, abounding in courtship drama, treachery, and romance. Austin portrays marriage based on material motives, the desire for stability, and finally, on mutual love and respect. "Indeed, since their chief alternatives to marriage were remaining spinsters or becoming governesses, [a woman''s] decision about marriage might be the most important one she would make." -Leroy Smith, Jane Austen and the Drama of Women