It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.' So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's classic novel of manners and mores in early nineteenth century England. As the Bennets prepare their five grown daughters to enter into society, each shows personality traits that illuminate their future prospects as wives. Jane, the oldest, is the most demure and traditional, and Lydia, the youngest, the most headstrong and impulsive.