Excerpt from pride and prejudice jane austen 1 it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife. 2 however little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of someone or other of their daughters. what is the main idea of the first two paragraphs? a) mothers of daughters from poor families will often try to find wealthy men for those daughters to marry. b) it is universally accepted that all men marry women in order to increase their own fortunes. c) no matter what a man's own desires are, if he is rich, families will claim him for their daughters the moment he enters town. d) while single men with a large fortune are not always known to families, it doesn't take the men long to be universally known.