title: A Single Man, Good Fortune (Must Want Wife): American Pride & Prejudice: Book One
author:  Jan Austen 
description: Under a different pen name, Jan Austen has written five novels, one of which became a major Hollywood movie. <i>There is a power, a raw strength in (Austen's) writing that is unquestionably original.</i> Daily Telegraph, London.
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  This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library
  shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project to make
  the world's books discoverable online. See the back of the book for detailed
  information.
  
  
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  PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.
  
  VOLUME THE FIRST.
  
  
  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.
  
  However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first
  entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the
  surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some
  one or other of their daughters.
  
  "My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that
  Netherfield Park is let at last?"
  
  Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
  
  "But it is," returned she; "