Two hundred years on, Elizabeth Bennet still has the last word.

'It is a truth universally acknowledged' may be the most quoted opening line in English. What follows is a comedy of manners so precise and so funny that readers in every generation recognise their own families in the Bennets.

Austen's genius lies in irony. She lets characters reveal themselves through what they say, and lets the reader see what they cannot. Beneath the balls and proposals is a clear eyed study of money, marriage and the narrow choices open to women of her time.

Adapted endlessly for film and television and translated into dozens of languages, Pride and Prejudice is not simply a classic. It is the template for modern romance.