According to Cassandra Austen,

Pride and Prejudice

was the last mature novel to be a re-working of an earlier, probably epistolary, work, titled

First Impressions

. Written in 1796-97, when Jane Austen was beginning to receive the attentions of an assortment of young men and her sister had just become engaged,

First Impressions

was an instant success with the Austens. The father offered it to a publisher on its completion in 1797, but it was rejected without a reading and has subsequently been lost. Its more mature avatar was completed in 1811-12, after the first successful submission of one of Austen’s novels, and signed “by the Author of

Sense and Sensibility

”. It went through two editions in the year of its first publication, 1813, and was received with public acclaim, garnering…

3821 words

Citation: Schneider, Ana-Karina. "Pride and Prejudice". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 January 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2575, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2575 Pride and Prejudice 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.