Editing Bridget Jones's Diary (novel) (section)

== Publication ==
This novel evolved from Helen Fielding's ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' columns in ''[[The Independent]]'' and ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010413/ai_n14381512 |title=The Diary of Bridget Jones: The Birth of a Legend |date=13 April 2001 |work=The Independent |location=London |access-date=11 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080212174455/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010413/ai_n14381512 |archive-date=12 February 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Fielding devised the novel with the help of ''Independent'' journalist [[Charles Leadbeater]];<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000026310,00.html |title=Charles Leadbeater |website=Penguin Books Authors Biography online |access-date=11 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080325221541/http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000026310,00.html |archive-date=25 March 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> it is roughly based on [[Jane Austen]]'s 1813 novel ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''.<ref>{{cite web|date=28 January 2013|title=Bridget Jones vs Pride and Prejudice|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-21204956|access-date=16 August 2016|work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> As a columnist, Fielding often lampooned society's obsession with women's magazines such as ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'' and criticised wider societal trends in Britain at the time.

The novel was first published in 1996 by the U.K. publisher; it became an international success. As of 2006, the book had sold over two million copies worldwide.<ref name="USAtoday"/> A sequel, ''[[Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (novel)|Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason]]'', was published in 1999, and two further novels, ''Bridget Jones: Mad about the Boy'' and ''Bridget Jones's Baby,'' were published in 2013 and 2016 respectively.