Tumblr crosspost (7 February 2021)

[anghraine]

In response to this post, elperian said:

there is that line where jane says ‘nothing could give either bingley or myself more delight. but we considered it, we talked of [lizzy and darcy] as impossible.’ so they do have a textual convo offscreen - but it’s about l/d which is funny in its own way

I replied:

Yeah, that’s what I meant when I said that it’s not that they don’t speak to each other in-story—they must have spoken on numerous occasions, of course, including those ones. It’s that Austen doesn’t bother showing any of those conversations in dialogue (unless I’m misremembering), which I think is fairly suggestive about the novel’s priorities.

rorylgilmore responded [on 5 Jan 2023]:

#same. i don't get it #i like the character of jane #but i'm confused whenever p&p is made to be about the two sisters and their romances as if it was s&s #(yet another reason i'm not on board with grouping all austen novels together) #we don't know enough about jane/bingley to be as invested (from my perspective at least) #still to each their own