article_snippet: It has sold more than 20 million copies since It was written two centuries ago and has had generations of schoolgirls swooning over the ultimate romantic hero.
article_snippet: But the great unspoken background of Jane Austen's world is that both Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley in Pride and Prejudice got rich from the slave trade, says Joanna Trollope.
article_snippet: The novelist said: 'Why does Mr Bingley in Pride and Prejudice have all this leisure to sort of drift between Netherfield and London?
article_snippet: the great unspoken background of Jane Austen's world Jane Austen's world is that both Mr Darcypictured, Colin Firth) and Mr Bingley in Pride and Prejudice got rich from the slave trade, says Joanna Trollope . '
article_snippet: The series marked the 200-year anniversary of the author's most popular work, Pride and Prejudice.
article_snippet: Pride and Prejudice describes how Mr Darcy earned £10,000 a year - more than £200,000 in modern money - while Mr Bingley inherited £100,000, the equivalent of £2 million today, and raked in another £5,000 a year, or £100,000 in modern money.