Pride and PrejudicePride and Prejudice

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." So begins Pride and prejudice, Jane Austen's perfect comedy of manners -- one of the most popular novels of all time -- that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues. "Pride and Prejudice seems as vital today as ever," writes Anna Quindlen in her introduction to this Modern Library edition. "It is a pure joy to read." Eudora Welty agrees: "The gaiety is unextinguished, the irony has kept its bite, the reasoning is still sweet, the sparkle undiminished. [It is] irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be."