Pride and prejudice is loosely based on Austen's experience. When Austen was twenty, she met Tom Lefroy, He was a young Irishman visiting his uncle in Hampshire. Austen almost became engaged to this guy but Lefroy's family sent him home. Turns out they didn't like him shacking up with a poor clergyman's daughter. Time for marriage was running out for Austin. At age twenty-seven, a wealthy Harris Bigg-Wither proposed and Austen accepted. The next morning, however, Austen changed her mind, because she really didn't love him. She gave up a lot of wealth and security by not marrying this guy. That's something Elizabeth Bennet would do!