Jane Austen started writing Pride and Prejudice, then titled First Impressions, in 1796. She began the early version after staying at Goodnestone Park in Kent with her brother Edward and his wife.
Austen wrote the initial manuscript between October 1796 and August 1797, when she was about 20 or 21 years old. The story was already popular within her family, where Austen commonly read her work aloud while developing it. In November 1797, her father tried to submit the manuscript to the London bookseller Thomas Cadell, but it was rejected immediately.
The novel was substantially revised more than a decade later, particularly in 1811 and 1812. Austen changed its title to Pride and Prejudice before publication by Thomas Egerton in January 1813. Readers sometimes confuse 1796 with 1797 because 1797 was the year she completed the first draft, rather than the year she began it.