Story so far

In a Hertfordshire household, the arrival of a wealthy young bachelor sets a mother's ambitions racing. Mrs. Bennet bursts upon her dry, teasing husband with the news that Netherfield Park has been let at last to a Mr. Bingley, a single man of four or five thousand a year come down from the north of England. To her, the meaning is obvious: here is a husband for one of her five grown daughters, and she presses Mr. Bennet to call on the newcomer at once, since propriety forbids the ladies visiting him first. Mr. Bennet parries her every entreaty with amused irony, refusing to promise anything and needling her about her nerves, her fading beauty, and the silliness of their girls—though he allows that his favourite, Elizabeth, has more quickness than her sisters. Mrs. Bennet, a woman of mean understanding and uncertain temper whose life's whole business is marrying off her daughters, cannot make out whether he will go. The chapter closes on her exasperation and his enigmatic reserve, the fortunes of the family hanging on whether he condescends to visit Mr. Bingley.