This is the opening line of Pride and Prejudice; a romance novel written by Jane Austen and published on the 28th of January 1813 by an anonymous author – the same pseudonymous that she had previously used to publish Sense and Sensibility -. Jane Austen was born in 1775 in England (Stevenson, Hampshire) and it is thought that by the age of 16 had already written many different novels, even though it was not until 1811 when she was able to publish her first novel.
The novel brings up many relevant topics that reflect the British life and customs characteristic of the eighteenth century. Austen makes a critic on these topics in a subtle -almost unnoticeable- way, the characters personify the British old-fashioned values that the author rejects, giving the reader freedom to judge the situation, while guiding them to
The thesis statements that appear in the narrative are: the importance of wealth and social status, the marriage of convenience, the pride – depicted by Elizabeth Bennet- and the prejudice -embodied by Mr. Darcy-. She intertwines the critic on the social values of the time with a love story, perhaps in order to make her work more attractive to the public.
To my mind, Jane Austen was not only a great author but also a woman ahead of her time. While everyone else was just content with what they had, she was able to see beyond and be critic with her time; a time of change, especially in Britain, an era of constant evolution and transformations determined by