Pride and Prejudice — Chapters One to Twenty-Four (Abridged)

The story begins at Longbourn, the home of the Bennet family, when Mrs. Bennet learns that a wealthy young bachelor, Mr. Bingley, has rented the nearby estate of Netherfield Park. She is determined that one of her five daughters — Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia — will marry him, since the family home is entailed away from the female line to a distant cousin, Mr. Collins.

At a local assembly ball, Bingley proves cheerful and easy, and he is immediately drawn to gentle, beautiful Jane. His friend Mr. Darcy, however, is proud and reserved. He refuses to dance with Elizabeth and is overheard calling her only "tolerable." Elizabeth finds the remark more amusing than hurtful, but it plants the seed of a lasting dislike.

As Jane and Bingley grow closer, Jane falls ill while visiting Netherfield after riding there in the rain at her mother's urging. Elizabeth walks three muddy miles to nurse her, and her liveliness quietly begins to win Darcy's admiration, though he tries to resist it, troubled by her family's poor connections and her mother's embarrassing behavior. Bingley's sisters treat the Bennets with open scorn and privately hope to steer Bingley toward Darcy's sister instead.

Mr. Collins, the clergyman who stands to inherit Longbourn, arrives determined to marry one of his cousins to ease his conscience over the entail. He settles on Elizabeth. Around the same time, Elizabeth meets the charming officer Mr. Wickham, who tells her that Darcy cruelly denied him an inheritance promised by Darcy's late father. The story deepens Elizabeth's low opinion of Darcy.

At the Netherfield ball, Elizabeth endures an awkward dance with Darcy and further embarrassment from her family, including her mother's loud predictions of a marriage between Jane and Bingley. Soon after, Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth, certain of success, but she refuses him firmly. He recovers quickly and proposes instead to her sensible friend Charlotte Lucas, who accepts him for the security the marriage offers — a choice Elizabeth struggles to understand.

Then comes a painful blow: Bingley and his party suddenly leave for London, and his sister Caroline writes to Jane hinting that Bingley will marry Darcy's sister and has no plans to return. Jane bears the disappointment with quiet dignity, while Elizabeth suspects that Darcy and the Bingley sisters deliberately separated the couple. By the end of Chapter Twenty-Four, Jane's hopes seem crushed, Charlotte is newly engaged to Mr. Collins, and Elizabeth remains firm in her poor opinion of Darcy and her trust in Wickham.