简·奥斯汀（Jane Austen，1775年12月16日－1817年7月18日）是英国著名女性小说家，她的作品主要关注乡绅家庭女性的婚姻和生活，以女性特有的细致入微的观察力和活泼风趣的文字真实地描绘了她周围世界的小天地。

奥斯汀终身未婚，家道小康。由于居住在乡村小镇，接触到的是中小地主、牧师等人物以及他们恬静、舒适的生活环境，因此她的作品里没有重大的社会矛盾。她以女性特有的细致入微的观察力，真实地描绘了她周围世界的小天地，尤其是绅士淑女间的婚姻和爱情风波。她的作品格调轻松诙谐，富有喜剧性冲突，深受读者欢迎。从18世纪末到19世纪初，庸俗无聊的“感伤小说”和“哥特小说”充斥英国文坛，而奥斯汀的小说破旧立新，一反常规地展现了当时尚未受到资本主义工业革命冲击的英国乡村中产阶级的日常生活和田园风光。她的作品往往通过喜剧性的场面嘲讽人们的愚蠢、自私、势利和盲目自信等可鄙可笑的弱点。奥斯汀的小说出现在19世纪初叶，一扫风行一时的假浪漫主义潮流，继承和发展了英国18世纪优秀的现实主义传统，为19世纪现实主义小说的高潮做了准备。虽然其作品反映的广度和深度有限，但她的作品如“两寸牙雕”，从一个小窗口中窥视到整个社会形态和人情世故，对改变当时小说创作中的庸俗风气起了好的作用，在英国小说的发展史上有承上启下的意义，被誉为地位“可与莎士比亚平起平坐”的作家。

简·奥斯丁出生在英国汉普郡斯蒂文顿镇的一个牧师家庭，过着祥和、小康的乡居生活。兄弟姐妹共八人，奥斯丁排行第六。她从未进过正规学校，只是九岁时，曾被送往姐姐的学校伴读。她的姐姐卡桑德拉是她毕生最好的朋友，然而奥斯丁的启蒙教育却更多得之于她的父亲。奥斯丁酷爱读书写作，还在十一、二岁的时候，便已开始以写作为乐事了。成年后奥斯丁随全家迁居多次。1817年，奥斯丁已抱病在身，为了求医方便，最后一次举家再迁。然而在到了曼彻斯特后不过两个多月，她便去世了。死后安葬在温彻斯特大教堂。简·奥斯丁终身未嫁。逝世时仅为四十一岁。

A perennial favorite in the Norton Critical Editions series, Pride and Prejudice is based on the 1813 first edition text, which has been thoroughly annotated for undergraduate readers.

"Backgrounds and Sources" includes biographical portraits of Austen by members of her family and by acclaimed biographers Claire Tomalin and David Nokes. Seventeen of Austen's letters—eight of them new to the Third Edition—allow readers to glimpse the close-knit society that was Austen's world, both in life and in her writing. Samples of Austen's early writing—from the epistolary Love and FriendshipA Collection of Letters—allow readers to trace her growth as a writer as well as to read her fiction comparatively.

"Criticism" features eighteen assessments of the novel by nineteenth- and twentieth-century commentators, six of them new to the Third Edition. Among them is an interview with Colin Firth on the recent BBC television adaptation of the novel. Also included are pieces by Richard Whately, Margaret Oliphant, Richard Simpson, D. W. Harding, Dorothy Van Ghent, Alistair Duckworth, Stuart Tave, Marilyn Butler, Nina Auerbach, Susan Morgan, Claudia L. Johnson, Susan Fraiman, Deborah Kaplan, Tara Goshal Wallace, Cheryl L. Nixon, David Spring, Edward Ahearn, and Donald Gray.

Also included are a Note on Money, a Chronology of Austen's life and work—new to the Third Edition—and an updated Selected Bibliography.

About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehenive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.