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“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Jane Austen · Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 1 · 1813 · Writer

Austen's narrator states a “universal truth” that is really a joke: it is the families of single women who want a rich bachelor, not the bachelor who wants a wife.

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About Jane Austen

Jane Austen lived most of her life in Hampshire, in a large clergyman’s family, and published six novels, the first four anonymously, between 1811 and 1817.

Her narrators are ironic, so her famous lines often mean the opposite of what they say on the surface. Some of the best-known lines from her books are spoken by characters she is gently mocking.

More lines by Austen

Short quotes checked against their sources.

  • “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!”
    Pride and Prejudice (Caroline Bingley), 1813
  • “There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.”
    Emma, 1815