Arguably one of the most well-recognized first lines in English literature, Jane
Austen’s opening to Pride and Prejudice tells the astute reader what to expect
from her novel. Rather than a straightforward romance, or a sentimental novel
of the late eighteenth century, Pride and Prejudice, like the rest of Austen’s
novels, is one of subtle, playful and tongue-in-cheek critique and commentary on
her social world, that of the British landed gentry. Her use of irony, realism, and
satire allowed Austen to deftly highlight the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of
polite society and the ways in which this society, its laws, manners, customs and
duties, constrain and shape her heroines.