Pride and Prejudice (Illustrated Edition)

Author: (British) Jane Austen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: In the late 18th century, British fiction seemed to have reached a stagnant phase. From the beginning of the century, led by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift, British fiction had experienced a golden age with masters like Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson. By this time, it showed signs of a "late-century" trend. The popularity of derivative works of these authors made family reading sessions by the fireplace after dinner dull and uninteresting, while the then-fashionable Gothic novels, with their bizarre and terrifying plots, had numbed readers' social sensibilities. Just at this time, a fresh and innovative female writer, Jane Austen (1775–1817), emerged from Steventon, a town in the southern part of England's Hampshire.