Pride and Prejudice for English learners: level, words and how to read it

What the book is about

Rural England in the early 19th century. The Bennets have five daughters and no son, so the family estate will pass to a distant cousin when Mr Bennet dies. Mrs Bennet has a single goal: to marry her daughters well. When the rich and friendly Mr Bingley moves in nearby, together with his even richer friend Mr Darcy, the neighbourhood starts buzzing.

Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine, is clever, ironic and not afraid to speak her mind. From the first ball, Darcy strikes her as arrogant, and he finds her family vulgar. The whole novel is about how both of them learn to see past a first impression.

Themes

• Marriage and money. For a woman of that time, marriage was often the only way to secure a future. Austen shows marriages made for money, for passion and for respect, and how each of them turns out.
• Pride and prejudice. The title describes both main characters: he is proud of his position, she is prejudiced by her first impression. Each has to admit a mistake.
• Class. Relations between the gentry and families of lower standing, snobbery, and what a person is really worth.
• Choosing for yourself. Elizabeth is ready to turn down an advantageous offer if she cannot respect the man. That was a bold position at the time.

How hard is Pride and Prejudice to read in English?

How many unknown words will you meet? With a vocabulary of about 2,000 words, roughly 13 in every hundred, since those words cover 86.6% of the text. With 5,000 words it is about 8 in a hundred, with 10,000 about 4. Character names are not counted.

Measured by vocabulary alone, the book is B2–C1: that is the level at which almost every word is already familiar (why 98% matters). Tap-to-translate covers the rest, so you can start at B2. On our list it sits between Robinson Crusoe, which is a little easier, and Peter Pan, which is a little harder.

What makes it harder than its length suggests: formal early 19th-century vocabulary (civility, countenance, approbation), old-fashioned words (twelvemonth, thither, quitted), long sentences with several clauses, and quiet irony where the narrator says one thing and means another. What helps: lots of dialogue, everyday scenes and characters you want to follow.

Our take: from B2 the novel is a pleasure to read. From B1 it is doable if you translate unknown words with a tap, but expect the first chapters to be slow.

Words to know before you start

The book’s own vocabulary: frequent in this text, much less common elsewhere. Ten minutes with this list makes the opening chapters smoother.

How to read it in the original

1. Start with chapter one. It is short and almost entirely a dialogue between Mr and Mrs Bennet, the easiest way into the language of the book.
2. Do not translate every old-fashioned word. Words like thither are clear from context. Look up the ones you need to understand the sentence.
3. Watch for irony. When the narrator states something solemnly, she is often joking. The very first sentence is a joke.
4. Read one chapter a day. A chapter is about 2,000 words, or 15–20 minutes. You will finish the book in about two months.

The first line

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

universally acknowledgedaccepted by everyone

adjective

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One of the most famous opening lines in English literature, and it is ironic: in fact it is the mothers of the neighbourhood who are certain that any rich bachelor must marry one of their daughters.

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