Pride and Prejudice (Puffin in Bloom)

Elizabeth Bennet finds Mr Darcy insufferable, and at first she has excellent reasons for it.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen turns on the five Bennet sisters, for whom a good marriage is not a romantic ideal but a bitter necessity. When the wealthy Charles Bingley comes to live nearby, he falls head over heels for the gentle Jane. His friend Fitzwilliam Darcy mostly has criticism, and Elizabeth, the second daughter, finds him haughty and self-satisfied. What follows is a game of first impressions, gossip and pride, in which both have to admit that they were wrong about the other.

Two centuries on, this classic still reads as the sharpest romantic comedy you can pick up. This hardcover belongs to the Puffin in Bloom series and has a flowery illustrated cover by Anna Bond, known from Rifle Paper Co. English-language edition, lovely to give as a gift and lovelier still to keep, with a pot of tea beside it.