So You Think You Know Jane Austen? (2)
Aug. 6th, 2009 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineOn to the next phase . . .
A1: He was in trade in Meryton, and received his knighthood by giving a loyal address to the king while mayor of Meryton. He has not ennobled himself — in fact, he’s laughably far from it, giving his immense deference for the Darcys and Lady Catherines he stumbles across.
A2: He was ennobled by having presented a ‘Loyal Address’ to the monarch (George III) during his mayoralty.
— That is why he was knighted. He has certainly not been ennobled or anything like it.
A1: They were sisters.
A2: They were sisters. Oddly, Mr Collins — who is fanatically attentive to everything connected with his patroness — does not know that Mr Darcy is the nephew of Lady Catherine.
— I’ve always wondered about this myself. Lady Catherine mentions the fact quite freely (and proudly!). Yet Mr Collins does not know of it from her, but rather from overhearing Darcy talking to Miss Bingley (of all people!) about Miss de Bourgh, a person he never mentions elsewhere. Actually, on second thought, I can imagine why Darcy would be talking to Miss Bingley of his cousin, though I’m sure she’s too thick to get it. Nevertheless the point stands; Lady Catherine would surely have mentioned her favourite nephew and prospective son-in-law at some point, given how often she does later.
A1: She wants a steady income, a nice house, and freedom from a future as a poor dependent on her parents and eventually, brothers. Elizabeth — who is not Miss Bennet, incidentally — cries ‘Impossible!’ upon hearing the news.
A2: She ‘accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment’.
— I’ve always loved that line, for no particular reason.
Elizabeth’s response, on being informed of her best friend’s impending marriage is ‘impossible!’ On more mature reflection her verdict is ‘unaccountable!’ It is of course entirely accountable. How, one wonders, has Elizabeth so misunderstood her friend?
— Um, the same way she misunderstands the others?
A1: He could, if he wanted, but he’d be stuck with a lower standard of living than he’s used to.
A2: He is a younger son (albeit of an earl) and ‘Younger sons cannot marry where they like’.
— Actually, some can, though mostly they don’t. For Colonel Fitzwilliam, it would mean a step down from luxury to moderate comfort. And why should he give that up for a girl he hardly knows?
A1: In June. She’s a summer baby, like Georgiana; in fact, they were probably born within weeks of each other. That does mean, however, that they weren’t the same age at the time of their (attempted) seductions; Georgiana was fifteen, Lydia is sixteen.
A2: In June. She ‘crosses into sixteen’ at Brighton.
— I’m sure she considers Brighton an adequate present.
A1: They’re going to visit the Lake District.
A2: To tour the Lakes. We know, from her earlier allusion to Gilpin’s treatise on landscape, that she has read the standard guides to the ‘picturesque’. She intends to see ‘all the celebrated beauties of Matlock, Chatsworth, Dovedale, or the Peak.’ And Pemberley — but only on the understanding that the Darcy family is not in residence.
— Elizabeth didn’t intend to see Pemberley; it was more or less thrust upon her.
A1: Fishing!
A2: Angling. There are trout in the stream which runs through the Pemberley grounds.
— I love this part of the book. I know I’m supposed to think it dull and over (or under) sentimentalised and all that, but mostly I find myself squeeing at every turn.
A1: Elizabeth, by Miss Bingley.
A2: This is Miss Bingley’s catty remark about Elizabeth’s attractions.
— One of many.
It goes down badly with Darcy.
— *giggle* You don’t say.
A1: That it doesn’t exist?—That is, it was arranged by their mothers when they were infants. Incidentally, if they were in cradles at the same time, and Darcy was intended for Anne from his earliest hours, the likelihood is that they’re about the same age, with Anne slightly the elder. I do wish that the assorted ‘Anne de Bourgh’ stories took account of that.
A2: The fact that the principals seem not to have agreed to it.
— Nice way of phrasing it.
The detail is interesting. If they are the same age, Anne de Bourgh must be around 28: long in the tooth by the standards of the novel. So why has Darcy let the situation linger on? Has Lady Catherine never in fact dared to tell him her plans?
— Lady Catherine would dare anything. IMHO of course. And I rather doubt that his mother never mentioned it, either, given that Wickham is familiar with the scheme from his time at Pemberley. As for Darcy letting the situation linger on — I doubt he considers Lady Catherine’s delusions his problem.
A1: Mary, probably. I don’t get the impression that Kitty spends much time at home after she starts staying with the Darcys and Bingleys.
A2: Mary. She has the consolation of her father’s library and the piano. She is not, we understand, as ‘beautiful’ as her sisters.
— She isn’t beautiful, full stop. We’re told that she’s self-conscious about being the only Bennet sister who isn’t.
Jane Austen could not, however, resist mentally marrying her off, and told her family that eventually Mary married one of Uncle Philips’s clerks, and was considered the intellectual star of Meryton.
— She said that Mary married one of her uncle’s clerks, yes, and was content to be a star of Meryton society. Not quite the same thing, IMHO.