Prejudice The first sentence of the novel, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austin, foreshadows the end of the book. She writes, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a good wife". At first, readers would understand this in one way. However, in the second half of the novel it takes on a whole new meaning. At first this sentence takes on an ironic meaning, because it is commonly understood that it is the woman who is in pursuit of a wealthy gentleman (and not the man pursuing the woman as stated). Austin also seems to prove this understanding of the quotation in the first half of the novel in her use of Mr