I am starting with Pride and Prejudice. Not only is it the only Jane Austen book that I have completely read before, but it also one of the most popular. There have been multiple movie versions, from the six hour BBC Colin Firth version that is set in period and closely follows the book, to the very loosely based "Bridget Jones' Diary". (Again, with Colin Firth.) English teachers rant over the complex heroine of Elizabeth Bennet, and I have heard more girls swoon over Mr. Darcy than any other Austen character. Published in 1813, yet almost two hundred years later, I belong to a facebook group titled "I Refuse To Settle For Anything Less Than Mr. Darcy", with 14, 550 other members. It seemed like a good place to start, full of misunderstandings of love, but topped with couples pairing off like rabbits at the end, every Jill with her Jack. I could use a world with that comforting security these days.
I read the first four chapters today. Nothing too terribly exciting, just introducing all the characters and setting the scene for the mayhem to ensue. The Bennet family, the Bingleys, and of course, Mr. Darcy. I have recently been told by a person making the transition from aspiring novelist to published author, that publishers like to not put a physical face to the main characters on book covers these days, because readers want to "imagine themselves as the main character." Hence we have shelves of books that display hundreds of people who have no heads, but great bodies. I do not see myself as Elizabeth Bennet, though I wish I were more like her. To overhear a man, especially a man as handsome as Darcy is described, say that I was not beautiful enough to tempt him to ask me to dance, and it was not his job to dance with the girls that the other men had passed over, would have cut me to the quick. But not Elizabeth. While she does not think highly of him after that, she simply jokes about it later as something ridiculous, and is simply glad that her sister, Jane, is favored by Mr. Bingley, at the same ball.
I was actually rather interested in the character of Mrs. Bennet, the mother. A character not usually painted in the most flattering light, even Austen herself does not seem to care for her. "She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news." But rather than simply brush her aside as a shallow mother, I think she truly cares for her daughters. One of the few ways to know that your daughter would be well taken care of after you passed away at that time was to make sure that they married someone who had the means to support them. And when you have five daughters, that means five well-to-do bachelors who must be found before any other mother finds them. Not an easy task. Even in today's day and age, where dating is not longer confined to such people as those that are in your same class and economic stature, we still have a shortage of eligible bachelors. Who has not heard the saying "Men are like parking spaces. The good ones are taken and the rest are handicapped"? I found a new sympathy for Mrs. Bennet, especially when she said to her husband, "my dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown-up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty." I woman who is that in touch with reality cannot be all bad.
Speaking of bachelors, as much as all of us believe that all we want is our own Mr. Darcy, I am not so sure these days. Charles Bingley does not sound so bad. He is happy, enjoys being around people, and seems content with his life. While he had money from his father to buy an estate, he is happy enough just to be a tenant and have the next generation buy the estate. Sounds like a pretty fabulous guy to me. Darcy makes a better story, but as far as spending the rest of my life with someone, Bingley just might do the trick. Go Jane.
