"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
When Mr Darcy comes to stay with his friend Bingley at Netherfield, Lizzie Bennet is as repulsed by his arrogance and pride as he is by her younger sisters and her mother.
Their unusual and antagonistic courtship foems a warmly perceptive comedy of manners, with the wonderfully vulgar Mrs Bennet, the pompous Reverend Collins and the caddish Wickham making a delightfully humorous supporting cast.
The story of Mrs Bennet's attempts to marry off her five daughters is probably one of the most enduring classics in English Literature. Patricia Hodge's reading captures all the wit and romance of Jane Austen's masterpiece in the BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour reading.
