Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen · 1813
Austen invented the modern marriage plot and the ironic narrator in the same novel, in 1813. Elizabeth Bennet is the first fully modern female protagonist: witty, observant, resistant. The novel is funny in a way that most novels called comic are not actually funny. BBC's Big Read ranked it second, behind only Lord of the Rings.
The case against
Austen's canvas is three or four families and their drawing rooms: the Napoleonic Wars exist as officers at a ball, servants are furniture, and money arrives from estates nobody is seen working. After Darcy's letter at the midpoint, the plot is a long wait for everyone to admit what the reader already knows. Wickham is dealt with offstage, by check.
Literary Fiction · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
