] I am sure I am missing something when Mrs. Bennet says, both in the novel and in the movie that they dine with four and twenty families and this is found to be hysterically funny. Is it merely that 24 families is actually very few? How many families would one be intimate with in town? Am I missing the joke?

Compared to London society, 24 families is very small. According to the book "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist--the Facts of Daily Life in 19th Century England" by Daniel Pool, London society was made up of approximately 1,500 families (about 10,000 people).

] Isn't Mrs. Bennet sort of correct when she says that Sir William Lucas is her model of good breeding and that those who fancy themselves above their company quite mistake the matter. Darcy has offended every body and most people do like Sir Lucas.