Pride and Prejudice

SECTION 1 Not Handsome Enough A wealthy stranger's insult shapes a year of misjudgment When a young man named Bingley 4 rents Netherfield Park, Mrs.

SECTION 1 Not Handsome Enough A wealthy stranger's insult shapes a year of misjudgment When a young man named Bingley 4 rents Netherfield Park, Mrs. Bennet 6 — mother of five unmarried daughters with no fortune to protect them — sees salvation. Mr. Bennet 7 pays a quiet call on Bingley, 4 teasing his family by revealing it only afterward. At the Meryton assembly, Bingley 4 is warmth itself, dancing twice with the eldest daughter, Jane, 3 and charming every person in the room. His friend Darcy, 2 however — ten thousand a year and twice as proud — refuses to dance with anyone beyond his own party, and is overheard dismissing the second daughter, Elizabeth, 1 as merely tolerable. Elizabeth 1 laughs off the snub among friends, but something takes root. In one evening, the Bennets' two great romances begin — one with a smile, the other with an insult. <div

SECTION 2 Three Miles Through Mud Elizabeth nurses Jane at Netherfield while Darcy fights his fascination Mrs. Bennet 6 engineers Jane's 3 visit to Netherfield on horseback during a rainstorm, hoping she'll be forced to stay overnight. The scheme works too well: Jane 3 falls genuinely ill. Elizabeth, 1 refusing to wait for a carriage, walks three miles through muddy fields to reach her sister, arriving with dirty stockings and glowing cheeks. The Bingley sisters 11 ridicule her appearance behind her back, but Darcy 2 admits her eyes were brightened by the exercise. During several days at Netherfield, Elizabeth 1 and Darcy 2 fence over everything — Bingley's 4 impulsiveness, what makes a woman accomplished, whether pride is ever justified. He admits his resentments last forever. She parries every thrust. He begins to feel something dangerous: attraction he did not seek and cannot easily dismiss. <div

SECTION 3 Wickham's Poisoned Tale A charming officer feeds Elizabeth exactly what her prejudice craves A militia regiment quarters in Meryton, and with it arrives George Wickham 5 — handsome, gregarious, the very model of an officer. When Darcy 2 and Wickham 5 pass each other on the street, Elizabeth 1 notices both men change color. At a supper party, Wickham 5 seats himself beside her and volunteers his history: the elder Mr. Darcy was his godfather and promised him a valuable church living, but the current Darcy 2 denied it out of jealousy. Elizabeth, 1 already nursing her grudge from the assembly, receives this account like scripture. Wickham's 5 easy openness feels like honesty; Darcy's 2 reserve resembles guilt. She doesn't notice that Wickham 5 tells…