The news that a wealthy young gentleman named Charles Bingley has rented the manor known as Netherfield Park causes a great stir in the neighboring village of Longbourn, especially in the Bennet household. The Bennets have five unmarried daughters, and their mother, a foolish and fussy gossip, recognizes that "it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." She sees Bingley's arrival as an opportunity for one of the girls to obtain a wealthy spouse, and therefore insists that her husband call on the new arrival immediately.
             Mr. Bennet does so, after tormenting his family by pretending to refuse, and Mr. Bingley returns the visit. The Bennets invite him to dinner shortly afterward, but he is called away to London. Soon, however, he returns to Netherfield Park with his two sisters, his brother-in-law, and a friend named Darcy, and all five come to a ball in the nearby town of Meryton.
             The Bennet sisters attend the ball with their mother, and the eldest, Jane, dances twice with Bingley, who declares her to be "the most beautiful creature" he ever beheld. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is snubbed by Darcy: both sit out a dance, and when Bingley suggests that his friend dance with Elizabeth, Darcy says that "she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me," and goes on to declare that he has no interest in women who are "slighted by other men." Because of these comments, and his refusal to dance with anyone not rich or well-bred, the neighborhood takes a dislike to Darcy. Meanwhile, Bingley is declared to be "amiable."
             At the end of the evening, the Bennet females return to their house, where Mrs. Bennet regales her husband with stories from the evening until he insists that she be silent. Upstairs, Jane expresses surprise that Bingley danced with her twice, Eliza tells her sister that she is unaware of her own beauty. Both girls agree that Bingley's sisters are not we...