The pride of high-ranking Mr Darcy and the prejudice of middle-class Elizabeth Bennet conduct an absorbing dance through the rigid social hierarchies of early-nineteenth-century England, with the passion of the two unlikely lovers growing as their unionseems ever more improbable.With a host of Bennet sisters playing out their own triumphs and disasters, and the unforgettable tragicomedy of their parents’ marriage demonstrating just how high the stakes can be, Jane Austen’s second novel has a lasting effect on every­one who reads it.