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Pride and Prejudice
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==Development of the novel== [[File:Letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra, 1799 June 11. Page 2 (NLA).tiff|thumb|upright=1.20|Page 2 of a letter from [[Jane Austen]] to her sister Cassandra (11 June 1799) in which she first mentions ''Pride and Prejudice'', using its working title ''First Impressions''.]] Austen began writing the novel after staying at [[Goodnestone Park]] in Kent with her brother Edward and his wife in 1796.<ref name="History">{{cite web|url=http://www.goodnestoneparkgardens.co.uk/history-of-goodnestone.php|title=History of Goodnestone|publisher=Goodnestone Park Gardens|access-date=26 August 2010|archive-date=17 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100217175804/http://www.goodnestoneparkgardens.co.uk/history-of-goodnestone.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was originally titled ''First Impressions'', and was written between October 1796 and August 1797.<ref name=LeFaye>{{cite book | last = Le Faye |first=Deidre | title = Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels| location = New York | publisher = Harry N. Abrams | year = 2002 | isbn = 978-0-8109-3285-2}}</ref> On 1 November 1797 Austen's father sent a letter to London bookseller Thomas Cadell to ask if he had any interest in seeing the manuscript, but the offer was declined by return post.<ref name="Rogers"/> The militia were mobilised after the French declaration of war on Britain in February 1793, and there was initially a lack of barracks for all the militia regiments, requiring the militia to set up huge camps in the countryside, which the novel refers to several times.<ref name="irvine">{{cite book |last=Irvine |first=Robert |title=Jane Austen |location=London |publisher=Routledge |date=2005}}</ref>{{rp|57}} The Brighton camp for which the militia regiment leaves in May after spending the winter in Meryton was opened in August 1793, and the barracks for all the regiments of the militia were completed by 1796, placing the events of the novel between 1793 and 1795.<ref name="irvine" />{{rp|56β57}} Austen made significant revisions to the manuscript for ''First Impressions'' between 1811 and 1812.<ref name="LeFaye" /> As nothing remains of the original manuscript, study of the first drafts of the novel is reduced to conjecture. From the large number of letters in the final novel, it is assumed that ''First Impressions'' was an [[epistolary novel]].<ref>This theory is defended in "Character and Caricature in Jane Austen" by DW Harding in ''Critical Essays on Jane Austen'' (BC Southam Edition, London 1968) and Brian Southam in {{cite book|last1=Southam|first1=B.C.|title=Jane Austen's literary manuscripts: a study of the novelist's development through the surviving papers|date=2001|publisher=the Athlone press / Continuum |location=London |isbn=9780826490704 |pages=58β59|edition= New}}</ref> She later renamed the story ''Pride and Prejudice'' around 1811/1812, when she sold the rights to publish the manuscript to [[Thomas Egerton (publisher)|Thomas Egerton]] for Β£110<ref>{{cite book|last =Irvine|first= Robert|title=Jane Austen|location=London|publisher = Routledge|isbn = 978-0-415-31435-0 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=n0LmV_Rcb3QC&pg=PA56|date= 2005| page= 56}}</ref> ({{Inflation|UK|110|1812|fmt=eq|cursign=Β£|r=-2}}). In renaming the novel, Austen probably had in mind the "sufferings and oppositions" summarised in the final chapter of [[Fanny Burney]]'s ''[[Cecilia (Burney novel)|Cecilia]]'', called "Pride and Prejudice", where the phrase appears three times in block capitals.<ref name="Pinion" /> It is possible that the novel's original title was altered to avoid confusion with other works. In the years between the completion of ''First Impressions'' and its revision into ''Pride and Prejudice'', two other works had been published under that name: a novel by [[Margaret Holford]] and a comedy by [[Horace Smith (poet)|Horace Smith]].<ref name="Rogers" />
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