Pride and Prejudice

Retold By Pauline Francis

Description

Classic novels

Sujets

• Literacy
• Easy Reader
• Classics
• ELT

Informations

• Publié par: Read Zone
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781783227341
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Pauline Francis
ReadZone Books Limited




First published in this edition 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of ReadZone Books Limited.

© copyright in the text Pauline Francis, 2005
© copyright in this edition ReadZone Books Ltd 2016

The right of the Author to be identified as the Author of this work had been asserted by the Author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Printed in Malta by Melita Press

Every attempt has been made by the Publisher to secure appropriate permissions for material reproduced in this book. If there has been any oversight we will be happy to rectify the situation in future editions or reprints. Written submissions should be made to the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data (CIP) is available for this title.

ISBN 978-1-78322-734-1

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Chapter One    The New Arrival
Chapter Two    An Invitation
Chapter Three The Unwelcome Visitor
Chapter Four   Gossip and a Proposal
Chapter Five    Visits
Chapter Six     A Surprising Conversation
Chapter Seven Pemberley
Chapter Eight Scandal!
Chapter Nine   A Wedding in the Family
Chapter Ten    A Change of Heart
Introduction
Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Hampshire, where her father was a rector. She was one of eight children, but she was especially close to her only sister, Cassandra, and Henry, the second son of the family. She was educated partly at home and partly at a boarding school where both girls nearly died from typhus.

Jane’s home was full of books and lively discussion. Her friends and family often staged plays, many of them comedies, which developed Jane’s strong sense of humour. Jane went on to write short novels and stories, which she always read to her family. One of these was First Impressions , begun in 1796, which later became Pride and Prejudice .

In 1800, when Jane was twenty-five years old, her father retired and the family moved to Bath. She did not enjoy town life, and wrote little in the years there. Her father died unexpectedly and after many moves, the family settled in Chawton, Hampshire, in 1809.

From this time, Jane published many successful novels – all anonymously: Sense and Sensibility (1811); Pride and Prejudice (1813); Mansfield Park (1814).

Pride and Prejudice fascinates readers because it deals with marriage, wealth and social class. The reader follows the main character, Elizabeth Bennet, as she deals with these issues, often judging people too quickly (the prejudice of the title), especially Mr Darcy, a man of great wealth and pride (the pride of the title). Will this pride and prejudice lead to a happy ending?

Pride and Prejudice is one of Jane Austen’s best loved novels and has sold over 20 million copies. It has been adapted many times, both for television and for cinema.

Jane Austen died at the age of 41 and two of her novels – Emma and Persuasion – were published after her death.
CHAPTER ONE
The New Arrival
It is considered to be true by everybody that a single man who has a great fortune must need a wife.
Thus if such a man comes to live in a neighbourhood, he will be seen as a possible husband for any eligible daughter of the families already living there. So that when the nearby Netherfield Park was at last rented, Mrs Bennet, the mother of five daughters, said to her husband:
‘I hear that it has been taken by a very wealthy young man. His name is Bingley. And he is single! What a fine thing for our girls.’
‘How can it affect them?’ Mr Bennet teased.
‘How can you be so tiresome,’ his wife replied. ‘I hope that he will marry one of them. You must visit him immediately, husband - for the sake of our daughters.’
‘I shall write to Mr Bingley, assuring him he may marry which ever my daughter he chooses,’ Mr Bennet replied sarcastically.
In fact, Mr Bennet was one of the first people to visit Mr Bingley. He had always planned to do so; but he decided to tease his wife by not telling her. He knew that her chief purpose in life was to see her daughters happily married.
It was unkind of Mr Bennet to tease his wife in this way. She had reason to worry about her daughters. As they had no sons, her husband’s estate – if he were to die before her – would be inherited by their nearest male cousin, Mr Collins. She and her daughters would be at the mercy of a man they had never met.
Neither Mrs Bennet nor her daughters succeeded in obtaining a satisfactory description of Mr Bingley from Mr Bennet. He skilfully avoided answering all their questions. So they were forced to rely on a good neighbour – Lady Lucas, who had also had the pleasure of meeting him, and her daughter, Caroline, who was a close friend of Elizabeth Bennet.
‘Mr Bingley is quite young, Lizzie,’ Lady Lucas confided, ‘wonderfully handsome and extremely agreeable. And he is expected to attend the next dance at the Meryton Assembly Rooms.’