As Pride and Prejudice is set to open on The Citadel Theatre stage this week, here are a few fun facts about this ever-popular novel and its ever-popular author, Jane Austen.
1. The opening line of Pride and Prejudice is one of Jane Austen's most famous: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
2. Jane Austen wasn't a famous, celebrated author during her lifetime, as Sense and Sensibility was by "A Lady", and later works were by the "Author of Sense and Sensibility" or the "Author of Pride and Prejudice". It was only after her death that her own name became attached to her works.
3. Jane Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral, a known place of honour. Because she was relatively unknown at the time of her death, it's speculated the status of Austen's clergyman father (who predeceased her) and brothers may have held sway on the matter.
4. Though Austen has fans of all her novels, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park among them, Pride and Prejudice (1813) remains Austen's most popular novel. The author is credited with creating words like 'spongecake', 'doorbell' and 'dinner-party'.
5. Fans of Jane Austen are called 'Janeites' (since 1896) and/or Austenites (since 1903).
See our review here!
Review: Pride and Prejudice clever, charming fun - AlbertaPrimeTimes.com
