Pride and Prejudice

The most commercially enduring novel in the English language, Pride and Prejudice has sold over 3 million copies per year for more than two centuries. Jane Austen published it in 1813 under the anonymous byline 'A Lady,' having accepted just £110 for the copyright; the first print run of 1,500 copies sold out within six months. Its opening line is the most quoted and parodied first sentence in the English literary canon. Elizabeth Bennet is consistently voted the most beloved heroine in fiction worldwide. Austen built all of this from the domestic sphere alone — transforming the drawing room into an arena of moral precision with the same dramatic intensity as any battlefield in War and Peace.