Andie’s Comments (group member since Jun 26, 2014)

Andie’s comments from the Austen August: A Pride and Prejudice Read-A-Long group.

Elizabeth is reeling from Darcy's letter, which has caused her to have to reconsider her feelings and opinions towards Wickham, never mind Darcy. She somehow brushes over all he says about Jane and Bingley, since he makes no apology about his assumptions about the two or for splitting them up.

Darcy's record of Wickham and his behaviour is only really verified for Lizzie by the conversation she had previous had with Colonel Fitzwilliam, whose comment about her being careful believing Wickham makes more sense with Darcy's context now.

Looking back on her conversations with Wickham, she is only now surprised with how forward she had let him be with her. She remembers he had boasted of having no fear of Darcy but had not appeared at the Netherfield ball the week after, clearly avoiding being present with Darcy in the same house. Also how he had kept his story quiet until the Bingleys and Darcy had conveniently left the property, and then as soon as they were gone, his story was all over the place.

She now realises that his intentions towards Miss King are horrible and the fact that her fortune is only “mediocre” proves that he is willing to go after any girl with any amount of money.

This is Elizabeth's wake up call, when she realises how full of prejudices she has been towards so many people, despite thinking she was above that.

Favourite quotes:-

“Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced and absurd.”

Lizzie is still in shock over Darcy's proposal. After being able to think of nothing else, she decides a walk might be the best way to clear her head. She makes sure to avoid her usual path due to having always bumped into Darcy while walking in the park.

After a while, she spots a figure who appears to be Darcy and despite turning to avoid him, he spots her, and speeds after her. He catches up to her and hands her a letter. He tells her he has been walking around in the hopes of seeing her and wants her to read this letter- he leaves her with it.

The letter is made up of two pieces of paper and she reads it there and then.

Darcy's letter explains that in it, he intends to clear his name, and not to extend anyone's pain longer than necessary. He again admits to playing a part in separating Bingley and Jane, but he did so at what he thought, wrongly, was early enough to stop Jane from suffering heartbreak. He did not want Bingley to marry below his status- since the Bennets are below Bingley in both wealth and status- (which is harsh but expected of the time).

The letter also refers to Lizzie's accusation regarding Wickham. Darcy claims he did provide for Wickham upon his father's death, and the only problem occurred when Wickham tried to elope with Darcy's sister Georgiana, in the hopes of securing her fortune. After that, he sent Wickham on his way (too bloody right).

Ugh, Wickham. What a sleaze.

haha both versions I have owned have all seperated the story into volumes :)

I always imagine lydia is around 15 years old, personally...I think it is hinted later in the book, I think she actually says at the end of the book that she just turned 16- but I could be imagining it.

I loved the web series when i watched it last year! Definitely need do get the book!

this entire chapter could just be called "rumours are bad and here is why".

While the others dine at Rosings, Lizzie takes the time to re-read Jane's letters since she arrived in Kent at the start of the year. She finds herself thinking that Janes sounds more pained in her letters than she had originally thought, and can't wait to return to Jane in the next two weeks.

While happy Darcy would be leaving Kent, she was unhappy Colonel Fitzwilliam would be going to, but it was clear the colonel had no intentions towards her, so she wasn't going to begrudge him it. The doorbell rings, and she hopes it is Colonel Fitzwilliam, she hopes he has come to ask about her health after hearing she is unwell, but it is not Colonel Fitzwilliam- it is Darcy.



He immediately asks about her health and after a few minutes silence, we get the infamous lines:-

“In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed.
You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

...I can't help but feel it somehow sounds more like a bank letter than a declaration of love, but hey ho.

He takes her silence for something else entirely and continues to discuss all the reasons he fought against his initial liking of her, mainly to do with “her inferiority” due to her family connections and wealth or lack thereof.... smooth, Darcy.

Initially, Lizzie feels bad for the pain she is about to give Darcy, but then she remembers how angry she is at him for his treatment of Jane, and then the comments about her “inferiority” don't really help to win her over- he finished his speech by talking about how despite all of her flaws, he can't ignore his attachment to her clearly expecting a positive answer from her- wow, he's in for a shock.

She tells him that while normally even if the feelings were unrequited, the person receiving these “compliments” would normally thank the other for them- but she “has never desired your good opinion and you have bestowed it most unwillingly.”

Darcy is embarrassed and angry at this refusal, and wants to know exactly why he has been turned down. She replies that she might as well ask “why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and against your character?” while this was enough to allow her to be “uncivil” towards him in her reply, she tells him she has greater reasons for being annoyed at him, because he has ruined any future happiness her beloved sister may have had.

He calmly states that he doesn't deny doing everything he could to separate “my friend from your sister”. When she brings up the fact what set her opinion about him already was a conversation with Wickham, now that really does make him uneasy- the fact that she actually listened to whatever Wickham has said.

She “explains” that he has fully ruined Wickham into a life of poverty and deprived him of what was rightly his. He is annoyed that this is what has apparently cemented her opinion of him and asks whether he was supposed to be happy that he liked her despite her family and background connections.

She tells him that the only way his declaration had an affect on her, is that it spared her any concern she had for him in her refusal “had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner”

*meow! *

She goes on to say that basically, he could be the last man on earth and she still wouldn't marry him. He is mortified and astonished, wishes her good health and walks out of the house. Lizzie is reeling from the thought that Darcy has apparently been in love with her for months. In love enough to want to marry her despite his own circumstances mirroring the exact same case which made him seperate Bingley and Jane. Hypocrisy all around!

So when Darcy was asking whether Lizzie had thought if the Collins' would be truly happy together, he was actually asking if she thought *they * might be happy together, as Jane and Bingley would have been!



(NB: I've somehow read exactly 1000 pages for Austen August so far, wait whut!! Not bad for 16 days in!)

Elizabeth starts bumping into Darcy more and more as she walks around Rosings estate.

She was confused this would happen since, in the hopes of avoiding him altogether, she told him that the park was her favourite place- which confused her when she bumped into him there a second time.

Yes, Lizzie...how odd. * smirk*


When she did bump into him, instead of his either continuing on his way, he would walk back with her and he would ask her random questions: did she like Hunsford? Did she really think Charlotte was happy? Why did she like solitary walks?

One day, she is walking while re-reading a letter from Jane when she bumps into Colonel Fitzwilliam, which surprises her- I think she must have gotten used to expecting to see Darcy. During their conversation, Colonel Fitzwilliam lets slip that they should have left for Kent earlier but Darcy delayed it. Hmmm...

They wind up talking about the friendship between Bingley and Darcy, and Colonel Fitzwilliam mentions that he believes Bingley is indebted to Darcy somehow. Lizzie asks him to explain, and Colonel Fitzwilliam emphasises that this is heresay, but that Darcy has congratulated himself on saving “a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage” but had not mentioned anyone's name in particular- the Colonel just assumed he had meant Bingley.

Lizzie asks why Darcy would interfere and he says that he believed “there were some very strong objections against the lady.”

Obviously this upsets Lizzie quite a bit. She finds it unfair of Darcy to take it upon himself to judge whether his friend will or won't be happy in a marriage (hmm, this is sounding familiar Lizzie...weren't you recently wondering the same thing about Charlotte as the new Mrs Collins?)

Lizzie is now angry because she always assumed that keeping Bingley and Jane apart was Miss Caroline Bingley's scheme, and Darcy was merely ignorant of the whole thing- but now she is convinced that he actually contributed towards it. She stays away from Rosings that night, since she wound up with a headache- although Mr Collins was concerned that Lady Catherine would not be pleased of her absence.

Here we go guys- Elizabeth is sitting writing a letter to Jane by herself while Charlotte is away doing something which I don't really care about because there is a knock at the door.


And it is Darcy.


OH HO



He apologises for intruding, as he had apparently thought others were in the room with her (pft yeah sure). After asking her about her stay at Rosings, Lizzie decides to ask him about the sudden departure of him and the Bingleys from Netherfield Park in November, rather than sit in silence with him. He confirms that they were all in good health when they left for London...and then silence.

Well, that worked.

She goes on to ask him if Bingley doesn't plan on returning there in the future, and Darcy says that he has never heard Bingley say this, although he has many friends and connections, and so may not spend a lot of time there in the future generally.

Another moment of silence and then Darcy decides to fill the silence by bringing up a compliment about his aunt's house. (lol smooth), They discuss whether Charlotte and Collins are too far from Charlotte's family by living at Rosings with Lady Catherine, and Darcy comments that Lizzie would find any distance greater than Netherfield Park too far, hinting at Jane.

Charlotte and her sister return from their walk to find Darcy and Lizzie alone in the room together (scandal!) and Darcy explains what happened, apologises and leaves the room. Charlotte exclaims that “he MUST be in love” with her for him to call upon her so casually. For such a seemingly practical and sensible lady, Charlotte, you are very romantic in your notions of Darcy and Lizzie! The original Fangirl?

Lizzie explains that there were a couple of weird silences between them and they come to the conclusion that it isn't that he is infatuated with Lizzie, but rather bored with nothing to do. From one extreme to the other there, ladies!

It is noted however that while the cousins do walk between the Rosings and Parsonage every day for exercise, Darcy seems to be appearing at the Parsonage more than the others are, with no real reason to. Charlotte has watched Darcy and has noticed that he watches Lizzie a lot, and vice versa, but his looks seem to be more “absent than full of admiration” (I must admit that made me laugh).

Whenever Charlotte raises the possibility of Darcy admiring her, Lizzie laughs it off, so Charlotte doesn't press the issue. Comparing of whether Colonel Fitzwilliam or Darcy would be a better match for Lizzie, Charlotte decides Darcy would do better because of his ties to the church. She supposes that if Lizzie believed that Darcy fancied her, that all of her dislike of Darcy would surely go away.

The ladies all felt that with Colonel's arrival at Rosings, there would be more invitations to be involved with them but it was days before anything was heard, as “while there were visitors in the house, they were not necessary” - that's nice.

They gathered in Lady Catherine's drawing room one evening, but apart from the basic pleasantries, Lady Catherine focused all of her attention on Darcy, ignoring everyone else. (I feel bad for him though, can you imagine having her as your aunt?!)

Colonel Fitzwilliam seems to have taken a shine to Lizzie, oh dear. We've been here before. They are enjoying themselves so much, talking about travel and books, that they soon catch the attention of both Lady Catherine and Darcy- his eyes keep wandering over to them with a look of curiosity (you say curiosity, I say jealously...)

Lady Catherine asks Fitzwilliam what they are talking about and he has to reply they are discussing music. We proceed to hear a lot about what Lady Catherine has to say on the matter of music.

A lot.

Ftizwilliam reminds Lizzie she promised to play him a song, so she goes over to Lady Catherine's piano forte and starts playing. Lady Catherine does start talking to Darcy but before long he breaks away from listening to his aunt and turns his full attention to Lizzie playing. Despite his aunt making a comment earlier about how she will never play as well as his sister., she asks if he means to intimidate her by coming closer to her, to make her feel nervous about playing.

He replies “you could not really believe me to entertain any design of alarming you; and I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long enough to know, that you find great enjoyment in occasionally professing opinions which in fact are not your own”

Lizzie tells Colonel Fitzwilliam the story of the ball where she met Darcy, and pokes fun at him for having left many girls sitting down instead of dancing, aka herself. Darcy says that this could not be helped as everyone was a stranger to him at that ball. Lizzie sarcastically replies that “of course, nobody can be introduced in a ballroom” and Darcy says he should have made more of an effort- awwwwh, sociallyawkward!Darcy is so cute.

Lizzie makes a weird analogy for Darcy practising being not-awkward to her fail piano playing skills, suggesting that he would get better if he worked on it but without practise he would never improve socially. He smiles and agrees. “We neither of us perform to strangers.”

Lady Catherine makes comments about how Lizzie has good skill but would never be as good as her niece, Anne De Bough- and throughout this conversation, Lizzie can't detect any signs of love from Darcy towards the mention of Anne's name...hmmmm could Caroline Bingley be...lying?! Theatre Gasp


Favourite Quotes:-

“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.” (Lizzie)

“I have not the talent which some people possess, of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done.” (Sociallyawkward!Darcy)

I'd love to have a book of Mary's insights!

LOL welcome to the read-a-long Kat! : D

No worries about being late or feeling rushed- that is why I've set the whole month as the time to read it in, so everyone has plenty of time and can keep at their own pace!

I agree with that though, while I do try to read the books first, more often than not I'll go and see the films on the cinema just because I don't want to miss them

This is just a very short chapter.

Charlotte's dad only stays at Hunsford for a week, and once he has gone, the Collins' return to their usual routines- Lizzie remains though.

While at their house, Lady Catherine often calls around and pries her nose into everything, examines any work they are doing, told them how wrongly they were arranging their furniture, and many other criticisms.

Elizabeth would occupy herself by going on walks along the grounds. After two weeks, she hears that Mr Darcy is meant to be coming to Rosings shortly, and begins to amuse herself at the idea of seeing how Miss Bingley has influenced him

Mr Collins goes to greet Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam, “the younger son of his uncle” upon their arrival, and Charlotte sees them all walking back towards their house, she turns to Lizzie and thanks her, because “Mr Darcy would never have come so soon to wait upon me” if she hadn't been thee, apparently.

They greet each other in a weirdly awwkard stony fashion and Elizabeth asks if he has seen Jane around London in the last three months. Darcy looks confused and says that he had no idea she was in town.

Mr Collins is over the moon at being invited to dine at Rosings with Lady Catherine, and won't shut up about their good fortune. In the entire lead up to actually going to Rosing for dinner, Mr Collins gives them a lengthy detailed description of what to expect, what it will be like, how to behave etc etc.

He makes a hilarious comment to Lizzie about her wardrobe, basically telling her “just wear whatever you have best, don't feel bad about your appearance as it can't be helped”- wait, what?

As they got nearer to Rosing, walking across the grounds, the others appear to get more nervous but Lizzie is quite calm about it as she is not scared of Lady Catherine- she doesn't believe she has a reason to be after all the nice things Mr Collins has told her.

Lizzie spent the dinner seated between Charlotte and Miss De Bough, and since Charlotte spent a lot of the time talking to Lady Catherine and Miss De Bough didn't say a word, Lizzie stayed quiet.
During the time after dinner, Lady Catherine voices her opinions on every subject possible and pries into Charlotte's family life. Lady Catherine has such an air of authority and a way of speaking, it's as if no other opinion is even possible or matters at all. She moves on to asking Lizzie about her family, her sisters – are they older, younger? Educated? Pretty? Likely to be married? What was her mother's maiden name? You'd think this was an interrogation! Lady Catherine notes to Charlotte that Lizzie is a “pretty and genteel girl”. She asks whether the Bennet sisters all play or draw, and upon finding out they never had a governess, Lady Catherine seems almost scandalised!

She is also shocked that all of the Bennet sisters are “out” (as in, to society) while the two elder sisters aren't even married. Elizabeth voices a concern which I think is probably very much an opinion of Austen, in that she finds it daft that the younger sisters should suffer as to having no social life because the elder sisters have little or no inclination to marry.

By the end of the grilling, Elizabeth shocks Lady Catherine by being “impertinent” and not giving her a direct answer when asked her age.

I'm starting to think Lady Catherine needs such a “grand” manor only to house her huge ego.

With seeing Jane in good health and the promise of a trip with her aunt and uncle, Lizzie is feeling pretty good. She goes to Hunsford to visit Charlotte at Rosings, with Sir William and Maria.

Charlotte welcomes her with open arms, so fondly that Lizzie is increasingly glad she decided to visit. Mr Collins keeps her at the gate for minutes while asking after every member of her family.
Whilst given a tour of the house, Lizzie can't help but feel that Collins is trying to make her feel bad for rejecting him, in a “look what you could have had” way, but it doesn't work. She got the feeling Charlotte wasn't really paying attention to Collins' boasts entirely after a while. While touring the grounds, they manage to be excused from Collin's narration because their shoes aren't fit for the mud, and the three girls manage to break away from the two gents.

At dinner, we learn that Lizzie will be meeting Lady Catherine on sunday (dun dun dun!) and that the Collins' dine at her house twice a week. Collins launches into his usual admiration and fawning over Lady Catherine, and you can practically hear Charlotte sighing and rolling her eyes.

The next day, Lizzie is in her room when she hears a noise, and opens the door to find Maria looking panicked in the corridor, telling her to come quickly because something has happened downstairs. They run to the dining room to find two ladies entering the grounds. Lizzie assumes one of these is Lady Catherine and is just like “...really? You made me run for this?!”

Maria corrects her, the elder of the two ladies is a Miss Jenkinson- the younger is Miss De Bough.

Immediately Lizzie makes a comment of “I like her appearance, She looks sickly and cross- Yes, she will do for him very well. She will make him a very proper wife”

Interesting how her mind seems to automatically keep constantly jumping to Darcy considering she hasn't seen or heard of the guy in literally months! And what a horrible thing to say about someone you have never even met!! I'm starting to wonder why so many readers idolise Elizabeth Bennet!

Charlotte and Collins return home to tell Lizzie and Maria that they have all been asked to attend Rosings for dinner tomorrow night

We have a little time jump here, January and February pass uneventfully.

We pick up when Lizzie first goes to visit Charlotte in Hunsford, in March. While she had promised Charlotte she would visit her, she had not really intended on going through with it (how nice of her), but through their letters, she found out that Charlotte really was looking forward to it and therefore she had to go, by the time she went she was actually looking forward to it herself- so that's something, I guess.
“Absence had increased her desire to see Charlotte again and weakened her disgust towards Mr Collins” - lovely.
She was also looking forward to getting away from the Bennet household for a little bit (probably moreso her mother) and at the chance of seeing Jane in passing, who is still in London at this time. She only felt sorry that it meant leaving her father at home for a while, who was going to miss her and made her promise to write to him often, and almost promised to maybe write one back (awh! Still so sarcastic Mr Bennet)

She says goodbye to Wickham, in a way that makes her resolve to hold him in good regard despite her aunts warnings. Lizzie travels with Sir William and the younger sister of Charlotte, Maria- her opinion of both seems pretty harsh. That they are both dull and empty-headed, with nothing much new to say that hasn't already been said before.

When she arrives at the Gardiner's house, she is relieved to find Jane looking well. Later on, her aunt catches her up on how Jane is really doing, and says that there are phases where she is dejected and still is a bit depressed over Bingley. She then brings up Lizzie's earlier mention of Wickham's affections moving to another girl, a “Miss King”, and asks Lizzie what type of girl she is. Her aunt puts two and two together and finds that his affection for Miss King only started showing once Miss King's grandfather had passed away, leaving her very wealthy. Lizzie once again defends him, saying why should they object to his behaviour when Miss King does not. Her aunt replies with a great line:-
“Her not objecting- does not justify him” < I feel like this sentence is relevant on so many topics today.

Lizzie is still insistent on defending Wickham! (which is weird considering how quick she was to think poorly of Charlotte for marrying Collins for his wealth, as Alicia pointed out on the last chapter!)

Her Aunt and Uncle invite Lizzie to join them on a tour of the lakes, although they aren't sure how far they will go, and she is over the moon to have a little adventure.

definitely Aida- Lizzie came down on charlotte like a ton of bricks when she found out she was marrying Collins for her own security/wealth...which is becoming more and more hypocritical with each chapter becasue of her opinion of Wickham!

Now you point it out, it probably is for the best Jane isn't from a wealthy family as such- she definitely would not have the steel in her personality to fend for herself!

I also thought it a bit hypocritical of Lizzie to come down so harshly on Chalotte

I really want a full chapter where it is just Lizzie and her dad being sarcastic the entire time. That would be amazing.

Mrs Gardiner talks to Lizzie about her concern re: Wickham and their relationship.

Lizzie reassures her that she is not in love with Wickham, merely finds him to be the nicest guy she has ever gotten along with. However, she can't promise that something between her and Wickham will never happen, especially since Mr Bennet appears to like him- she promises not to rush into anything. She asks Lizzie to at least try to deter Wickham from visiting Longbourn often.

Collins returns (like a bad flu) and this time, he resides with the Lucas family. The day before the wedding day of Charlotte and Mr Collins, Charlotte visits Longbourn. Mrs Bennet is quite rude towards her and apologetically, Lizzie walks with her out of the house after the visit. Charlotte asks Lizzie to visit her at Hunsford. After the wedding, Lizzie soon gets a letter from Charlotte, and they are immediately writing letters regularly, although Lizzie never felt the closeness to Charlotte she used to feel- it was more for the sake of what the friendship had been than what is was now. (I know that feeling well.) They are full of observational details of Charlotte's new life but nothing of real depth.

Meanwhile, Jane has arrived in London to visit the Gardiners. After being in town for a week, she had heard nothing from Caroline Bingley, and assumed her letter had gotten lost in the post (oh Jane...). She decides to visit the Bingley's in person, and when she arrives, Caroline puts on false airs and pretends to be happy to see her- and tells her off for not sending notice prior, leaving Jane to believe that yes, her first letter got lost in the post and Caroline did not ignore it (to which we all know, she did.)

Four more weeks pass and Jane sees nothing of Bingley and she is no longer totally blind to Caroline's true intentions after hearing nothing from her following her impromptu visit. Caroline did return her visit- but after many, many excuses for two weeks and when she did eventually visit Jane, she was short and left quickly. Lizzie is glad that Jane is no longer being played for a fool by Caroline and her manipulations, but sad for Jane's pain at this realisation.

The letter from Jane saying all of this reminds Lizzie she owes her aunt an update re: Wickham, and tells her that she believes that while it was nice to think Wickham fancied her, she believes his attentions have moved on to another.