MR DARCY TAKES A WIFE

How might a newspaper’s social page look if they were to report on Mr Darcy’s engagement today? It has long been speculated who Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley in Derbyshire would marry. Many people have suggested the woman they believe he would choose to be his bride but that has all come to an end as Mr Darcy announced his engagement yesterday. It was believed by many that Mr Darcy would marry his cousin Miss Anne de Bourgh, that daughter of Lady Catherine de Bourgh of Rosings in Kent. There was even a talk that they were engaged. Others also believed that Mr Darcy may marry Miss Caroline Bingley, the sister of his close friend Mr Charles Bingley. However, the lady Mr Darcy has chosen to marry is Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourne in Hertfordshire.

The couple met last a year ago when Mr Darcy was staying with Mr Bingley in Hertfordshire. Mr Darcy and Miss Bennet were introduced at a ball but did not know each other very well until Miss Bennet stayed at Mr Bingley’s house for a few days in order to take care of her older sister who had taken ill while visiting Miss Caroline Bingley and was not well enough to be moved home.

Mr Bingley has immediately expressed his delight in Mr Darcy’s engagement but was very eager to talk about his own approaching nuptials to Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s older sister. Miss Bennet’s mother is equally excited and says that she feels very blessed that now three of her daughters will be married and, “Mary and Kitty are likely to marry well as they will meet other rich men through Jane and Lizzy.” Mr Bennet would not say much on the subject but did venture that he was pleased for both his daughters.

Mr Darcy’s sister Miss Georgiana Darcy is also overjoyed at her brother’s engagement saying that she has always liked Miss Elizabeth Bennet since their first meeting and is delighted that she will soon be able to call Miss Elizabeth Bennet her sister. Mr Darcy’s aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh has refused to comment on the engagement though sources reveal that she is in a rage as she had assumed Mr Darcy’s marriage proposal to her daughter was imminent.

As for Mr Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet they have said that they have settled it between them that they are to be the happiest couple that ever was. We wish them very well.

How different was Jane Austen's world to the world of today?

In one way it is amazing how popular Jane Austen’s novels are considering that the world she lived in is vastly different from the world we live in today. This fact became extremely obvious to me a few months ago when I went to a Regency ball. I was so excited and found myself a beautiful dress to wear and tried as hard as possible to make everything from my hair to my jewellery to my shoes look authentic. The evening was great fun and could have been in Regency times except there were a few electronic lights on. So the ball itself was very much like it would have been in Regency times except for some swapping of mobile numbers and the money used to buy drinks but if one was to just look at my preparation for the ball one would see how the world has changed.

Firstly, I had a shower and just merrily walked into the bathroom, turned on the taps and enjoyed a nice warm shower. I dressed myself and then began on my hair. I wanted to have ringlets so put some curlers in my hair, out came the hairdryer and not that much later my hair was done. I know I was trying to look authentic but did put on a little make-up and soon we were ready to go. We jumped into the car and off we went and arrived at the ball.

If Jane Austen or one of her contemporaries were going to a ball the preparation would have been quite different. If they chose to wash at all it would have been quite a lengthy process with housemaids bringing in buckets of water to fill a tub and that was once the water was actually heated. Once washed many ladies would have had servants helping them dress and helping them with garments such as corsets. Hair would have been another problem. Assuming it was wet one would have to sit in front of the fire allowing it to dry. A servant would more than likely have helped with styling the hair and hot curling irons would have been used to create ringlets. Some ladies did use powder on their faces but certainly no such thing as lipstick or mascara. Finally to get to the ball ladies would have had to get into a carriage and possibly have a very bumpy ride to the ball.

So just in something as simple as getting ready for an evening out, the world of Jane Austen and that of the 21st Century are hugely different.

The lifestyle was so different in Regency England and things we take for granted were not even thought of but yet Jane Austen’s novels are still as popular as ever possibly proving that even if the world changes, people never do.

Should people write sequels to Jane Austen's novels?

I, personally have never liked the idea of people writing sequels to Jane Austen’s books. No matter how accomplished an author is if they choose to write a sequel to any of Jane Austen’s books they are taking her characters and deciding their fate. My first objection to this is Jane Austen is the only person who really knew what would happen to her characters. Her characters were very real to her and in letters to her family she used to update them on what had happened to her characters so even if she never wrote a sequel she certainly knew in her head what would happen in their lives after the end of the book.

My second objection is that the author sometimes does not know Jane Austen as well as they think they do. When I went to stay with my cousin she very sweetly left a copy of Pemberley by my bed to read while I was there. I did not get very far because the author did not seem to know the characters at all and had it not been for their names I would not have known I was reading a book about the characters of Pride and Prejudice. The line about Mrs Bennet never displaying her emotions so others did not know what she was feeling seems to stick in my head, for anyone who has read Pride and Prejudice knows Mrs Bennet is nothing if not a display of emotions.

Having said all this I have read a few sequels I have enjoyed and I am going to mention two. The first one is Letters From Pemberley by Jane Dawkins which is a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. It is a series of letters that Elizabeth Bennet writes to her sister Jane in her first year of marriage. I think one of the reasons I liked this book is that nothing too dramatic happens and all that Elizabeth experiences is more than likely what the new Mrs Darcy would have experienced. By the end of the book both Elizabeth and Jane are pregnant and in the days of no contraception most women probably did fall pregnant in their first year of marriage. The author does not go so far as to tell us whether they give birth to boys or girls which I am pleased about as I think that is something that only Jane Austen should have decided. The other reason I like this book is that there is a ‘game’ for true Jane Austen fans to play while reading. Elizabeth Bennet, on becoming the wife of Mr Darcy would have had to move to Derbyshire and meet many new people and the author has made all the new people she meets characters from Jane Austen’s other books but has changed their names. A true Jane Austen fan can have fun guessing who is who. For example, Elizabeth meets a lovely newlywed couple Mr and Mrs Daley, the husband is sixteen years older than his wife and they are now living at her father’s house as she could not bear to leave him but at the same time her father hates any kind of change so could not move to Mr Daley’s house. Anyone who has read all of Jane Austen’s novels would know this could not be anyone but Emma Woodhouse and Mr Knightly from Jane Austen’s Emma.

Another sequel I enjoyed is Mr Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange. It’s not, strictly speaking, a sequel to Pride and Prejudice but does continue the story after Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy are married. I particularly enjoyed the book firstly because it told the story I know and love so well from the hero’s point of view. It omits certain things like Mr Collins’s proposal because Mr Darcy was not present when that took place. At the same time it adds things like what Mr Darcy did while in town for the winter which we do not know when reading Pride and Prejudice. As I have said it does continue the story into the first few months of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy’s marriage and has quite an amusing diary entry about the whole family arriving for Christmas at Pemberley. It also covers the issue of how Mr Darcy deals with having Mr Wickham as a brother-in-law.

My conclusion on sequels to Jane Austen’s novels is that they must be read as speculations of what could have happened. One sequel I read had Colonel Fitzwilliam marrying Georgiana Darcy and yet in another sequel I read he married Anne de Bourgh. I was momentarily confused before realising that nobody except Jane Austen herself knows who he did eventually marry and it may not even be a character in Pride and Prejudice. I have concluded that I shall read sequels if they come my way though I will not actively seek them and always know that no one can improve on the original – the works of the one and only Miss Jane Austen.

I love Jane Austen

I love Jane Austen