“A single man of enormous fortune; 4 or 5 thousand a yr. What a high-quality factor for our ladies!” In “Satisfaction and Prejudice” Jane Austen didn’t have to clarify to the Nineteenth-century reader what Mr Bingley’s “4 or 5 thousand a yr” meant, or why it excited Mrs Bennet. It was apparent. Mr Bingley was an inheritor. And the surest solution to get wealthy was not by working onerous however by marrying the suitable particular person.
