Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a novel about the lives of wealthy people who live in the English countryside in the early 19th century. It was first published in 1813.

Pride and Prejudice has two main characters: Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Secondary characters include Elizabeth’s sisters Jane, Mary, Catherine (Kitty) and Lydia.

Three of the main themes in Pride and Prejudice are love, status, and prejudice. All the themes explored in the novel are closely linked to its 19th century Georgian context.

Pride and Prejudice is a prose novel in the literary fiction genre. The language in the novel reflects its 19th century context and the way in which upper-class people spoke.

For Edexcel, Pride and Prejudice is assessed on Paper 2: the 19th-century Novel and poetry since 1789. You will be presented with one extract and a two-part question.