Q 01/05

In what year was Pride and Prejudice first published?

A) 1813

B) 1815

C) 1817

D) 1819

Answer · why

A) 1813

It was Austen's second published novel after Sense and Sensibility (1811), though the third she wrote; she was in her early twenties when she drafted ...

Q 02/05

What was the novel's original working title?

A) A Truth Universally Acknowledged

B) First Impressions

C) Elizabeth and Darcy

D) The Bennets of Longbourn

Answer · why

B) First Impressions

Austen wrote it between October 1796 and August 1797; her father offered it to bookseller Thomas Cadell, who declined by return post.

Q 03/05

How much did Austen receive when she sold the manuscript to publisher Thomas Egerton?

A) £110

B) £500

C) £1,000

D) £2,500

Answer · why

A) £110

About £6,800 in today's money, and a flat sale — she saw none of the profits from a book that became one of the best-sellers in English literature.

Q 04/05

What completes Austen's line 'a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of...'?

A) a house

B) an heir

C) a wife

D) a fortune

Answer · why

C) a wife

The line frames the whole marriage-market comedy that follows, and has been parodied endlessly — including by a zombie novel.

Q 05/05

How many daughters does Mr Bennet have?

A) Three

B) Four

C) Five

D) Six

Answer · why

C) Five

Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia — and no son, which is the whole problem, since Longbourn is entailed to the male line.