A/N I wrote this when I was in yr 7, so please be kind. And please
review. PLEASE!
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Chapter I
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. at least this is what the middle- aged, avid social climber, Mrs Bennet, believed. Despite the fact that she lived in the twenty-first century, an age when women have careers and often do not marry until they are thirty, if they marry at all, Harriet Bennet was a firm believer in the institution of matrimony, preferably before the age of twenty-one, and definitely before the age of twenty-five.
Her five daughters and her long-suffering husband were forced to put up with the consequences of this motherly obsession. Harriet's girls, Jane, twenty-three, Elizabeth (Lizzy), twenty, Mary, nineteen, Catherine (Kitty), seventeen and Lydia, fifteen, were constantly implored by their mother to attend numerous social gatherings where eligible, wealthy bachelors might be in attendance. Not that her matchmaking efforts were completely unwelcome: Harriet's two youngest daughters, Kitty and Lydia, were the most determined boy-chasers on the planet, and any opportunity to mix and flirt with handsome young men was always keenly welcomed!
"My dear John!" Mrs Bennet cried excitedly. "We have a new addition to our list of local millionaires!" After waiting a moment, she exclaimed impatiently, "And do you not want to know who he is?"
To which her husband replied, "You are determined to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing all about him."
Ignoring his sarcastic remarks, she pressed on. "A rich, young man from England.A single, rich, young man, my dear . what a fine thing for our girls!"
"How so, Harriet? And how may it affect them?"
"Oh, John!" his wife exclaimed, "You must know that I'm thinking of his marrying one of them!"
"Is that his intent in moving here?"
"Intent? Oh how can say things like that?"
Her five daughters exchanged wry smiles at their mother's failure to recognise their father's irony.
"But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them." She paused to let this remark sink in. "I think it would most likely be Jane, for she is by far the prettiest of all of you." Mrs Bennet had once again managed to insult four of her daughters within their hearing, but they were used to such indiscretions on her part.
"Jane may be the prettiest, but Lizzy is by far the cleverest." John, like his wife, had his favourites within the family.
"What would a man want with a clever wife? No, John, beauty always wins out in the end." Harriet Bennet was stating her opinion as a universally acknowledged fact of life: A good-looking girl with an empty head and a pleasant personality cannot fail to attract a rich, clever young man.
Mrs Bennet was a woman of limited understanding, little information and uncertain temper. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was luncheon and gossip.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. at least this is what the middle- aged, avid social climber, Mrs Bennet, believed. Despite the fact that she lived in the twenty-first century, an age when women have careers and often do not marry until they are thirty, if they marry at all, Harriet Bennet was a firm believer in the institution of matrimony, preferably before the age of twenty-one, and definitely before the age of twenty-five.
Her five daughters and her long-suffering husband were forced to put up with the consequences of this motherly obsession. Harriet's girls, Jane, twenty-three, Elizabeth (Lizzy), twenty, Mary, nineteen, Catherine (Kitty), seventeen and Lydia, fifteen, were constantly implored by their mother to attend numerous social gatherings where eligible, wealthy bachelors might be in attendance. Not that her matchmaking efforts were completely unwelcome: Harriet's two youngest daughters, Kitty and Lydia, were the most determined boy-chasers on the planet, and any opportunity to mix and flirt with handsome young men was always keenly welcomed!
"My dear John!" Mrs Bennet cried excitedly. "We have a new addition to our list of local millionaires!" After waiting a moment, she exclaimed impatiently, "And do you not want to know who he is?"
To which her husband replied, "You are determined to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing all about him."
Ignoring his sarcastic remarks, she pressed on. "A rich, young man from England.A single, rich, young man, my dear . what a fine thing for our girls!"
"How so, Harriet? And how may it affect them?"
"Oh, John!" his wife exclaimed, "You must know that I'm thinking of his marrying one of them!"
"Is that his intent in moving here?"
"Intent? Oh how can say things like that?"
Her five daughters exchanged wry smiles at their mother's failure to recognise their father's irony.
"But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them." She paused to let this remark sink in. "I think it would most likely be Jane, for she is by far the prettiest of all of you." Mrs Bennet had once again managed to insult four of her daughters within their hearing, but they were used to such indiscretions on her part.
"Jane may be the prettiest, but Lizzy is by far the cleverest." John, like his wife, had his favourites within the family.
"What would a man want with a clever wife? No, John, beauty always wins out in the end." Harriet Bennet was stating her opinion as a universally acknowledged fact of life: A good-looking girl with an empty head and a pleasant personality cannot fail to attract a rich, clever young man.
Mrs Bennet was a woman of limited understanding, little information and uncertain temper. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was luncheon and gossip.
