Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a romance not a classic. It is one of the predecessors of the formula template with its thematic considerations, referred to by modern publishers and editors of the modern romance fiction when picking their latest offerings.

In Pride and Prejudice, a modern romantic hero template is created from Austen's Mr. Darcy. See Bridget Jones' Diary. Harold Bloom believes that Austen�s strengths lies in the art of representation, "like Shakespeare, she gives us figures� utterly consistent each in her or his own mode of speech and being, and utterly different from one another".

Austen�s heroine, Elizabeth Bennet is independent, intelligent, different in her strong sense of individualism, which is also another template for modern day heroines in romance fiction.

The most telling thing that makes Pride and Prejudice a romance, is the main theme of husband hunting and its happy endings. Pride and Prejudice follows this theme, whether the characters themselves acknowledge it or not. (Like all other regency romances.:) )The Bennet sisters led by their mother are certainly hoping to marry well to provide for themselves in the case of their father�s death.

Elizabeth is gentry; her father, a landed gentleman. However, because of the male entail on the property, Elizabeth is deprived of some of her genteel status and therefore her value, is made only valuable on personal self worth not social status. The very fact that Darcy falls in love because of her "dark eyes" and her spirit, and not what she will bring in matrimonial assets, creates the unbelievably Cinderella type ending so commonplace in women�s romance fiction now.

There is the initial mutual dislike between the hero and heroine, which is another familiar plot element. This plays a role in establishing that when the heroine finally succumbs to love, it not because of self-interest but of true emotion. In Pride and Prejudice, Austen makes no qualms about the fact that Elizabeth is impressed with Darcy�s Pemberley, "'And of this place,' thought she, 'I might have been mistress' ".

Yet in the end, she does not marry him for his "ten thousand pounds a year", but for the "respect, esteem and gratitude" she feels when he rescues her family from disrepute. Austen neatly absolves her heroine from such self-interest by ensuring that there was a mutual dislike between the lovers when they first met and that Elizabeth is initially attracted to Wickham, who has only his seeming virtues and charm to recommend him. Also Elizabeth�s attraction to Colonel Fitzwilliam, which falls through because of the realities of the socio-economic system then, proves that she can be attracted to a man with little prospects purely for the sake of the man. This elevates Elizabeth�s final matrimony intentions, creating a more satisfying fantasy ending.

Small wonder why I turned out so warped. Too many such books I suppose.