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1-Page Summary of Pride and Prejudice
When a wealthy young man named Charles Bingley rents the Netherfield Park, he stirs up the nearby village. His arrival causes great excitement in Longbourn, especially within the Bennet household. The Bennets have five unmarried daughters—from oldest to youngest, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia—and Mrs. Bennet is desperate for all of them to get married soon. After Mr. Bennet visits him at Netherfield Park and meets his friend Darcy (Darcy was not present during this visit), they attend a ball at which both young men are present along with many other guests who were invited by Bingley himself to meet his new neighbors and friends from out of town as well as some residents of Meryton (the nearest town). Bingley dances with Jane quite often throughout the evening while Darcy only dances with Elizabeth once despite her efforts to attract his attention towards her again after their first meeting earlier that day when she was introduced to him by their hostess. This makes everyone view Darcy as arrogant because he refuses to dance with anyone else besides Elizabeth even though there are many other women present who would love an opportunity like this one or simply be flattered if he asked them instead.
At social events, Darcy finds himself increasingly attracted to Elizabeth. He starts noticing her wit and charm more often than before. Jane’s friendship with Bingley also continues to grow, and he invites her over for dinner at his house. On the way there, she gets caught in a downpour and catches cold from walking through muddy fields. She arrives at the house soaking wet, which Miss Bingley doesn’t like because she thinks that people who are poor should not be allowed into good houses like theirs. The moment Miss Bingley sees how dirty Elizabeth is after coming home from work or school makes her dislike her even more because it seems as though she doesn’t have any manners or respect for herself if she can’t even take care of herself properly enough to make sure that she isn’t covered in mud while visiting someone else’s home.
When Elizabeth and Jane return home, they find Mr. Collins visiting their household. He is a clergyman who stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s property if he marries one of the daughters. He is quite friendly with the girls but has made a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth, who rejects him because she feels that he’s too pompous for her tastes. Meanwhile, Wickham tells Elizabeth about how Darcy cheated him out of an inheritance by having his father change his will before dying, which causes her to dislike Darcy even more than before.
At the beginning of winter, the Bingleys and Darcy leave Netherfield Park and return to London. Jane is upset about this because she loves Mr. Bingley. But even more surprising news arrives with a letter announcing that Charlotte Lucas has married Mr. Collins, one of Elizabeth’s friends from Longbourn who had proposed to her but was turned down by Elizabeth as being too dull for her tastes (and he also insulted her). They marry anyway and move away to his estate in Hunsford Parsonage where they live happily ever after… or so it seems on paper!
That spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte. She also meets Darcy’s aunt and the home of Mr. Collins’ patron. As a result, she has many encounters with Darcy himself. During one of these meetings, he proposes to her but she rejects him because he is arrogant and unpleasant to her. He claims that his only intention was to try and stop Jane from marrying Bingley since he thought it wasn’t serious enough for them both in their relationship as well as disinheriting Wickham after hearing about his attempt on Georgiana’s life during his travels abroad while serving in the militia there at age sixteen years old when they were staying together at Pemberly (Darcy’s estate).
