> First Impressions was the original title to which 1813 novel?And the answer: Pride and Prejudice. Photo courtesy: BBC.Written by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice is considered a classic of Englishliterature. Set in rural England, the story follows a family of five verydifferent sisters and their love lives.It is a truth universally acknowledged that Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is amasterful work in its own right. While it is considered a literary classictoday, young Austen was not so lucky in her lifetime. As a natural born writerand avid reader, Austen began to create from a very young age. Her family,literary in their own ways, encouraged her authorship -- in fact, her fatherthought so highly of her work that he reached out to a publisher inquiring aboutinterest in Austen’s early version of Pride and Prejudice, then known as FirstImpressions. However, the hurdles for the publishing of her book weresubstantial. The author received many rejections to publish her work, evenrelinquishing copyright of Northanger Abbey for a measly £10 (only for thepublisher to do nothing with the manuscript). Austen’s breakthrough moment came with the hesitant publishing of her novel Sense and Sensibility. Luckily for Austen, readers enjoyed the novel, sellingwell enough for the young author to be free of any debts of commission to herpublisher. The success inspired Austen to continue to push Pride and Prejudice,ultimately leading her to sell the copyright to her manuscript to a publisherfor £110. As the book took off in popularity, sales skyrocketed. By the year’send, Pride and Prejudice had sold out. Unfortunately for Austen, however, thesuccess of the novel hardly benefited her monetarily -- her publisher owned therights. But, as her career and name recognition grew (the latter growing a bitslower, as Austen’s name did not appear on any of her published works in herlifetime), Austen became determined, stating:> “The truth is that the Secret has spread so far as to be scarcely the Shadow ofa secret now — & that I believe whenever the 3d appears, I shall not evenattempt to tell Lies about it. – I shall rather try to make all the Money thanall the Mystery I can of it.”Today, Austen is one of the greatest authors of the late 18th and 19th century.Learn more about her style and legacy below.