Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (best ereader for students txt) ๐
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Pride and Prejudice may today be one of Jane Austenโs most enduring novels, having been widely adapted to stage, screen, and other media since its publication in 1813. The novel tells the tale of five unmarried sisters and how their lives change when a wealthy eligible bachelor moves in to their neighborhood.
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- Author: Jane Austen
Read book online ยซPride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (best ereader for students txt) ๐ยป. Author - Jane Austen
โNot as you represent it. Had she merely dined with him, she might only have discovered whether he had a good appetite; but you must remember that four evenings have been also spent togetherโ โand four evenings may do a great deal.โ
โYes; these four evenings have enabled them to ascertain that they both like Vingt-un better than Commerce; but with respect to any other leading characteristic, I do not imagine that much has been unfolded.โ
โWell,โ said Charlotte, โI wish Jane success with all my heart; and if she were married to him tomorrow, I should think she had as good a chance of happiness, as if she were to be studying his character for a twelvemonth. Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.โ
โYou make me laugh, Charlotte; but it is not sound. You know it is not sound, and that you would never act in this way yourself.โ
Occupied in observing Mr. Bingleyโs attentions to her sister, Elizabeth was far from suspecting that she was herself becoming an object of some interest in the eyes of his friend. Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness. Of this she was perfectly unaware;โ โto her he was only the man who made himself agreeable nowhere, and who had not thought her handsome enough to dance with.
He began to wish to know more of her, and as a step towards conversing with her himself, attended to her conversation with others. His doing so drew her notice. It was at Sir William Lucasโs, where a large party were assembled.
โWhat does Mr. Darcy mean,โ said she to Charlotte, โby listening to my conversation with Colonel Forster?โ
โThat is a question which Mr. Darcy only can answer.โ
โBut if he does it any more I shall certainly let him know that I see what he is about. He has a very satirical eye, and if I do not begin by being impertinent myself, I shall soon grow afraid of him.โ
On his approaching them soon afterwards, though without seeming to have any intention of speaking, Miss Lucas defied her friend to mention such a subject to him, which immediately provoking Elizabeth to do it, she turned to him and saidโ โ
โDid not you think, Mr. Darcy, that I expressed myself uncommonly well just now, when I was teasing Colonel Forster to give us a ball at Meryton?โ
โWith great energy;โ โbut it is a subject which always makes a lady energetic.โ
โYou are severe on us.โ
โIt will be her turn soon to be teased,โ said Miss Lucas. โI am going to open the instrument, Eliza, and you know what follows.โ
โYou are a very strange creature by way of a friend!โ โalways wanting me to play and sing before anybody and everybody!โ โIf my vanity had taken a musical turn, you would have been invaluable, but as it is, I would really rather not sit down before those who must be in the habit of hearing the very best performers.โ On Miss Lucasโs persevering, however, she added, โVery well; if it must be so, it must.โ And gravely glancing at Mr. Darcy, โThere is a fine old saying, which everybody here is of course familiar withโ โโKeep your breath to cool your porridge,โโ โand I shall keep mine to swell my song.โ
Her performance was pleasing, though by no means capital. After a song or two, and before she could reply to the entreaties of several that she would sing again, she was eagerly succeeded at the instrument by her sister Mary, who having, in consequence of being the only plain one in the family, worked hard for knowledge and accomplishments, was always impatient for display.
Mary had neither genius nor taste; and though vanity had given her application, it had given her likewise a pedantic air and conceited manner, which would have injured a higher degree of excellence than she had reached. Elizabeth, easy and unaffected, had been listened to with much more pleasure, though not playing half so well; and Mary, at the end of a long concerto, was glad to purchase praise and gratitude by Scotch and Irish airs, at the request of her younger sisters, who with some of the Lucases and two or three officers joined eagerly in dancing at one end of the room.
Mr. Darcy stood near them in silent
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