"It is a truth universally acknowledged,

that a single man in possession of a good fortune,

must be in want of a wife."

 

Thus begins Jane Austen's most beloved novel.  Equally assumed, but not stated in Pride and Prejudice is that a single woman must be in want of a man in possession of a good fortune.  Written in her 21st year (three years after the demise of Marie Antoinette), Pride and Prejudice tells the evocative story of her heroine Elizabeth Bennet's transformation in the space of her own 21st year.  Though Ms. Bennet is not in possession a good fortune - her only hope to future security is through marriage - she is in possession of an independent lively intellect that ultimately transforms her haughty antagonist, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, a man who is in possession of a good fortune.

 

Virtually all the novel's action is conveyed through dialogue.  The epicenter of the novel is Mr. Darcy's first marriage proposal to Ms. Bennet in which he conveys "His sense of her inferiority-of its being a degradation...[was] dwelt on with a warmth which...was very unlikely to recommend his suit."   Through the course of her rejection, "[h]is complexion became pale with anger, and the disturbance of his mind was visible in every feature.."  She continued: "I might as well enquire,...why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?..."  It is this explosive scene that has been inscribed into the skin of this dress and melded into a layer of George III era shillings.