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 2 Literature Review
2.1 Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice
　　　Jane Austen was twenty-one when she finished the manuscript for First Impressions and nearly thirty-eight in 1813 when the novel emerged in print, fully formed, as Pride and Prejudice. As with its predecessor, Sense and Sensibility, Austen earned a small sum of money with the sale of the novel and was credited as its author on the first-edition title page with three simple words: "By a lady". The edition was promptly sold out, as was a second edition printed in the same year that bore the author's name. From 1883 to the present, Pride and Prejudice, like all of Austen's novels, has been continuously in print. One of the most loved, and widely read, pieces of fiction ever published, Pride and Prejudice has delighted academic and general readers alike with its intricate narrative structure, sparkling prose, and witty dialogue for nearly two hundreds years.
　　　The novel has been described as a simple "Cinderella story", a comedy of manners that rivals Shakespeare for its characterization and precision of language, a social satire that comments on the class and gender conditions of life in Britain during the early nineteenth century. Perhaps the reason why so many readers return to this book time and again is that its carefully crafted prose lends itself to such a broad range of interpretations. With each reading we discover something new, and unexpected. It is a book that grows with us. Though Austen creates a very vivid and authentic portrait of her world, the story at its heart is so human - the quest for true love and happiness - that it transcends time and place. We are all intimately with the struggle. And we yearn for a happy ending.
　　　Austen is credited with creating some of the most memorable characters in English literature. As G. H. Lewes noted in his 1852 essay "The Lady Novelists", "To read one of Austen's book is like an actual experience of life: you know the people as if you had lived with them, and you feel something of personal affection towards them." This is certainly the case with Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of Pride and Prejudice. She is beautiful, quick-witted, and "not yet one-and-twenty". She has an ironic eye and clarity of thought that suggests someone much older. We trust her immediately, and we may learn that she’s not so infallible as she seems at first glance. She is human, and our favorable first impression is never disappointing.

2.1.1 The story
Pride and Prejudice tells a story which centers around a series of misunderstandings between Elizabeth and Darcy. Elizabeth is a lively young middle-class woman who has a satirical temperament whereas Darcy, born in a wealthy upper-class family, is an unconsciously arrogant young man. He first offends Elizabeth with his haughty contempt for the "inferiority of the connections" and the "want of propriety" apparently displayed by her son-in-law hunting mother, officer-chasing younger sisters and keen but indolent and cynical father. On account of this, Elizabeth makes up her mind not to care about Darcy at all. However, Darcy reluctantly finds himself a suitor of Elizabeth. As he proposes to Elizabeth, he can't help showing his pride for his own status.