Pride and Prejudice - level 5 (Penguin Readers).pdf - ANGIELSKI - AGARR

Pride and Prejudice

JANE AUSTEN

Level 5

Retold by Evelyn Attwood

Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

Pearson Education Limited

Edinburgh Gate, Harlow,

Essex CM20 2JE, England

and Associated Companies throughout the world.

Contents

page

ISBN-13: 978-0-582-41935-3

ISBN-10: 0-582-41935-2

Introduction

First published in the Longman Simplified English Series 1945

First published in Longman Fiction 1993

This adaptation first published in 1996

This edition first published 1999

Chapter 1

The Bennets

Chapter 2

New Neighbours at Netherfield

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Jane Gains an Admirer

Mr Collins

NEW EDITION

Chapter 5

Mr Wickham

Cover design by Bender Richardson White

Chapter 6

The Ball at Netherfield

Chapter 7

Mr Collins Makes a Proposal of Marriage

Set in ll/14pt Bembo

Printed in China

SWTC/10

Chapter 8

Netherfield Is Empty

Chapter 9

Mr Collins Makes Another Proposal

Chapter 10

Jane Goes to London

in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the

prior written permission of the Publishers.

Chapter 11

Elizabeth Visits Hunsford

Chapter 12

Lady Catherine de Bourgh

Chapter 13

Visitors to Rosings

Published by Pearson Education Limited in association with

Penguin Books Ltd, both companies being subsidiaries of Pearson Plc

Chapter 14

Mr Darcy

Chapter 15

Elizabeth Receives a Letter

Chapter 16

Elizabeth and Jane Return Home

Chapter 17

The Regiment Leaves Meryton

Pemberley

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

The Bingleys

For a complete list of titles available in the Penguin Readers series please write to your local

Pearson Education office or contact: Penguin Readers Marketing Department,

Pearson Education, Edinburgh Gate, Harlow, Essex, CM20 2JE.

Chapter 20

Lydia and Wickham

Chapter 21

Mr Gardiner Goes to London

Chapter 22

Mr Bennet Returns

Lydia and Wickham Are Found

Introduction

Chapter 23

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, in the south of

England, in 1775. She was the seventh of eight children of

George Austen, the minister of Steventon Church, and his wife

Cassandra Leigh, whose father was also a church minister. Jane

spent the first 25 years of her life at home in Steventon, where

she learnt French, Italian, music and needlework. She was taught

by her father, who encouraged her to read widely. The family also

enjoyed performing plays, and it seems that Jane took part in

these. She began writing at the age of fourteen as entertainment

for her family.

When George Austen left his post in 1801, the family moved

to Bath, a city which often features in Jane Austen's stories. When

he died four years later, Jane moved back to Hampshire with her

mother and sister and lived there until her death at the age of

forty-one. The last few years of her life were affected by the

development of the disease from which she died, and the

suffering it caused her.

Jane Austen's life was an uneventful one, although some of her

relatives led more exciting lives. She never married; she received

proposals of marriage, though, and accepted one of them before

changing her mind the next day. She was very close to her family,

and in particular to her sister Cassandra, who also remained

single. It seems that this quiet, ordered existence was necessary to

Jane in order that she could write. She wrote very little while

living in Bath, which was a relatively unsettled period in her life.

The restricted life that Jane Austen led had a strong influence

on the subject matter of her stories, all of which deal with the

everyday lives and concerns of middle-class people living in the

countryside and towns of England. These people are anxious,

above all, about their own and others' social position, about affairs

Chapter 24

Mr Bennet Agrees to Their Marriage

Chapter 25

Return to Netherfield

106

Chapter 26

Lady Catherine Visits Longbourn

114

Chapter 27

Elizabeth and Mr Darcy

119

Chapter 28

The End

126

Activities

129

of the heart and marriage. Austen's particular skill is the careful

and humorous way in which she explores every detail of their

lives. A strong sense of morality underlies her work, which makes

it even more powerful. This moral sense is shown through

Austen's description of her characters' behaviour; the writer's

beliefs are not stated openly.

Austen's early writing often made gentle fun of popular fiction

of the time. Love and Friendship, her first book (completed in

1790), was not very kind to those writers who scorned

emotional self-control. Northanger Abbey was written at the same

time, but only appeared after her death. The main character in

this book reads a great deal, and as a result confuses literature

with real life. Sense and Sensibility was begun in 1797 but did not

appear in print until 1811. This book, Pride and Prejudice (1813),

Emma (1816) and Persuasion (1817) are Austen's best-known

works; they all deal in sharply and humorously observed detail

with the manners and morals of one small social group. A more

deeply serious work is Mansfield Park (1814); this has never been

as popular with the reading public as the others, but to many it is

the height of her achievement. Austen's novels were fairly

popular in her lifetime, but it was only after her death that they

achieved great success and that she was really given the respect

she deserved.

Pride and Prejudice was originally written under the title First

Impressions. Austen then rewrote the book as Pride and Prejudice,

which appeared in 1813 and became probably the most popular

of her works. Austen herself loved the book, calling it "my own

darling child", and she was very fond of Elizabeth Bennet, the

story's main character.

It was very important at that time for young women of a

certain class to marry well, since they had no money or property

of their own and were completely dependent on their fathers

first and then on their husbands. The story shows how various

characters choose their marriage partners, and the mistakes they

make along the way. The underlying message is that it is not

enough to marry for money alone; this will lead to unhappiness.

Correct and polite behaviour is another important subject, but

Austen shows that an honest and honourable nature is more

important than social rules which are followed only on the

surface.

Mrs Bennet's chief anxiety is her urgent need to find good

husbands for all five of her daughters. So when a rich, unmarried

young man rents a large house in the neighbourhood, her

excitement reaches new heights; she is determined that Mr

Bingley should marry one of the girls. He does in fact seem to be

attracted to her oldest daughter, the calm and lovely Jane, but

their relationship is not in fact an easy one. Mr Bingley has a rich

friend named Darcy who begins to admire Jane's lively and

amusing sister Elizabeth. On first sight, though, Elizabeth finds

Mr Darcy much too proud and scornful of the company in

which he finds himself, and she wants nothing to do with him.

Gradually these four young people get to know each other, and

themselves, much better, and they are often surprised by the

discoveries they make.

vii

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