Pride and Prejudice is the most popular of Austen's six remarkable novels. Full of crackling dialogue, it achieves the finest balance of comedy and reflection, liveliness and solemnity. While revealing the restrictive life of genteel women at the turn of the nineteenth century, it provides as the central consciousness  the clever, witty, and flirtatious Elizabeth Bennet, arguably Austen's most alluring heroine. One of the great love stories of English literature, the novel has spawned countless films and fantasies. In its brilliant balance of psychological observation and social comedy, the original effortlessly survives its global exploitation. The novels Austen wrote later in life were more complex but, drafted when the author was close to her heroine's age of twenty, Pride and Prejudice remains her most vivacious and sparkling work. Prefaces and explanatory endnotes supplied by Janet Todd illuminate the cultural, historical and literary context, bringing Jane Austen's world to life.