Pride and Prejudice

This book is called Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen wrote it.

George Saintsbury wrote a preface for it.

A preface is a note at the start of a book.

Hugh Thomson made pictures for the book.

George Allen printed the book in London.

Jane Austen wrote many books.

She wrote a book called Northanger Abbey.

She wrote a book called Persuasion.

She wrote a book called Mansfield Park.

She wrote a book called Sense and Sensibility.

She wrote a book called Emma.

She also wrote Pride and Prejudice.

Many people love Jane Austen's books.

Some people like one book best.

Some people like another book best.

Many people think Emma is her best book.

But the man writing this preface loves Pride and Prejudice best.

He thinks it is her best book of all.

Jane Austen started writing it when she was young.

She was about twenty-one years old.

That was around the year 1796.

She fixed it up later, many years after.

The book was printed in 1813.

Jane Austen died four years after that, in 1817.

The writer of the preface thinks the story fits together very well.

He thinks almost every part of the story is needed.

Nothing feels missing. Nothing feels extra.

He also thinks the people in the story are very funny and very real.

He says Jane Austen was clever at showing silly people.

She showed them in a gentle way, not a mean way.

The writer says her stories feel small, like a tiny painting.

But he says the small painting shows big and true things about people.