Pride and Prejudice keeps place in our affections

The plot itself is pretty basic: boy meets girl, they hate each other at first sight but, after time, each realises that the other is marvellous. And then they get married.

It could be any one of a number of chick-lit novels, but for millions, from the opening lines onwards - "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" - Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a classic of English literature. Now, it is apparently the top book we cannot live without.

A survey for World Book Day today shows that 20 per cent of people believe Pride and Prejudice to be the number one book in our affections, ahead of JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which won 17 per cent of the vote, and Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, with 14 per cent.

The online vote, in which more than 2,000 people took part, underlines the public's ongoing love affair with all things Austen. Three years ago, Pride and Prejudice was only narrowly beaten by Lord of the Rings in the BBC's Big Read, while two adaptations - the 1995 TV series starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle and the 2005 film with Keira Knightley - enjoyed high viewing figures. Austen fever continues this month with the release of the biopic Becoming Jane, with Anne Hathaway.

The rest of the poll contains few surprises - with the Harry Potter books, the Bible, 1984 and Great Expectations also featuring. However, the separate lists for men and women do reveal some differences between the sexes - Lord of the Rings tops the men's list, followed by books by male authors on what could be seen as "masculine" themes - Crime and Punishment (5th), Catch 22 (7th) and The Grapes of Wrath (9th). The women's list has Jane Eyre in second place; with Little Women (7th), Rebecca (8th) and Tess of the d'Urbervilles (9th).

Sue Horner, principal of English at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, said: "All these top 10 have a timeless quality. It is likely that many of these books are lasting favourites, first encountered at school."

The Bible owed its strong showing to people over 60, who named it their fourth favourite. The Right Rev Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, said: "We shouldn't be surprised by the Bible's lasting popularity. It is full of wisdom, hope and new insight."

Notable absences from the list are writers in translation, apart from Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, and contemporary authors other than J K Rowling and Philip Pullman, both of whom are considered to be children's authors. Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong, at 17, makes him the highest-ranking contemporary adult-fiction author, while Dan Brown's hugely popular The Da Vinci Code comes in at number 42.

The top ten

1 Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

2 Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

4 Harry Potter books, JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

8= Nineteen Eighty Four, George Orwell

8= His Dark Materials trilogy, Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations, Charles Dickens