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

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

In chapter 7, we learn that the Bennet fortune is not very good for the daughters, because the two thousand pounds a year which Mr Bennet earns through his land, is entailed by law to any male heirs- aka none of the five daughters. They will get a little part of their mother's inherited “fortune” of four thousand pounds but between the five of them, it probably wouldn't go very far as a dowry.

The militia have arrived in town, much to Kitty and Lydia's delight. After listening to them go on and on about the various officers in town, Mr Bennet declares that Catherine and Lydia must be “two of the silliest girls in the whole country”. Mrs Bennet defends them, calling them clever and her husband disagrees and calls them foolish.

Jane receives an invitation to have dinner with Caroline Bingley, and because it looks like rain, Mrs Bennet insists on her going on horseback to Netherfield Park in the hopes she will become ill and have to recover by staying a few days at Bingley's house- oooh Mrs Bennet, you schemer!
The next day they receive a note from a very ill Jane, and Mrs Bennet congratulates herself on her excellent plan.

Lizzie is determined to go to Netherfield Park and see her sister for herself. Elizabeth walks to Netherfield, first with Kitty and Lydia who are walking into town to see the officers again, and then makes the rest of the three mile journey alone.
Lizzie arrives at Netherfield Park and the state of her dress shocks the residence, including Mr Darcy. Jane is made up to see her sister visiting her. Lizzie sees how much care they are extending to Jane while she is sick and is grateful to them for it, causing her opinion of them to change a little bit.




Favourite Quotes

“Well my dear”, said Mr Bennet, “if your daughter should have a fit of illness, if she should die, it will be a comfort to know she did so in the pursuit of Mr Bingley, and under your orders”

“[Mr Darcy] was divided between the admiration of the brilliancy which exercise had given to her complexion, and doubt as to the occasion's justifying her coming so far alone”

Welcome Aileen and Amelia! I hope you both enjoy it!

As for the books I'm afraid I can't speak for all editions. I know some have illustrations and annotations. Others count the chapters differently. So for example the penguin english library version I have follows the original structure of having 3 volumnes so instead of e.g. Chap 20, it'll be Vol 2 Chap 5 or something. My other version just counted the chapters as standard from 1-64 odd...

I'm the same. Ive only read it once before properly and because I was so focused on the story ans getting used to the language, I feel I missed a lot of the humour in it!

that's exactly what I'm doing :) I'm ahead in Longbourn (vol 2 chap 4) but it is so good so far!!

Jane and Bingley have to be my second OTP in this book. Every time there is a scene with them, I pretty much spend it going "d'aaaaaaawwh". They're both so sweet.

I'm really enjoying this so far. One of the more interesting points raised is that it is possible that Bingley's family "Trade" is sugar, since he hails from the north of England, which could mean that his family wealth came from, or still came from the Slave Trade.

Other than that I'm enjoying Sarah and the other servants of Longbourn and I'm intrigued to see where this perspective goes

Every time I read his scenes, I grow to love him more and more. I think when I first read this book, I really overlooked him as a character, in favour for the more central characters. He also reminds me so much of my dad and his dry humour.

More visits between the Bennets and Bingley, with Jane making good impressions on the family. Despite the Bingley residence finding “the mother intolerable and the younger sisters not worth speaking to” (harsh! Lol) but they liked Jane and Elizabeth. While Jane accepts this behaviour, Lizzie finds it irritating and can't bring herself to like those at Netherfield Park, even if they were really nice towards Jane and herself. Fair enough, in my opinion.

Jane and Bingley continue to stare at each other with hearts for eyes. (Crowd: d'aaaaawh)
Elizabeth asks Charlotte her opinions and advice on the matter because she doesn't think Bingley knows how much Jane likes him- Charlotte advises that Jane needs to make the most out of any time she spends with Bingley because he doesn't know her character well enough to read her mind yet.

Elizabeth says that despite Jane dancing four dances with him, seeing him one morning at his house and eaten four meals with him, “this is not quite enough to make her tunderstand his character” - I'd like to point out that despite this, she is sold that Darcy is an arrogant prat without even talking to him once.

Meanwhile, Austen lets us know that Lizzie has no idea that Darcy is slowly changing his mind about her unintentionally. He begins to consider that she isn't as unattractive as he first thought (oh ho ho it begins. I love that in the actual books of period dramas, the “heroes” are always crushing on the girls quite early on. In the dramas and movies, you don't see any of that until much later in the story, if at all). In order to try to talk to Lizzie, wanting to know more about her,. As a result of this, he forces himself to get involved in her conversation with other guests at Netherfield Park. (Sociallyawkward!Darcy is a Go!)

Lizzie finds it very strange that Darcy has decided to join in the conversation and Charlotte decides that Lizzie should play the piano- she reluctantly agrees and manages a song or two for the group. During this, Charlotte's dad decides to ask Darcy why he doesn't dance, and when he sees Lizzie crossing the room towards them, William Lucas decides to introduce Lizzie as a dance partner to Darcy, and gives Darcy Elizabeth's hand, which he was “not unwilling to receive”. (The Lucas family seem to like the idea of the two paired up!)

Lizzie says she doesn't wish to dance (but politely, doesn't say it is because Darcy is her partner) and when William says that Darcy would have no objection, she replies “Mr Darcy is all politeness” (can you hear the sarcasm? Can you?). She walks away and while Darcy is thinking about Lizzie turning him down, Miss Bingley appears next to Darcy and believes he is thinking how insuffarable these gatherings are. Darcy corrects her and tells her that he was actually thinking about a pair of “fine eyes”. He admits outright to her that he was thinking of Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and Miss Bingley proceeds to mock him with the thought that Mrs Bennet is to be his future mother-in-law.


Favourite quotes:-

“Elizabeth was far from suspecting that she was herself becoming an object of some interest in the eyes of his friend. Mr Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes.”

“I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.”

In Chapter five, we get the introduction of a family, who have been friends with the Bennet family for years- the Lucas Family. The eldest daughter, Charlotte, is Lizzie's best friend.

Charlotte discusses the ball with Mrs Bennet, including how Darcy claimed Lizzie was only “tolerable”. While Mrs Bennet and Charlotte discuss how stony and quiet Darcy is, Jane (bless her) actually defends Darcy by bringing up the fact she has been told that he is only quiet around people he doesn't know, when he is around his actual friends, he is “quite agreeable”.

Mrs Bennet considers Lizzie lucky to have dodged a bullet by Darcy not liking her, which would have been a great misfortune, apparently.

Charlotte insists she wishes that Darcy had danced with Lizzie (So according to Austen's earlier quote about dancing being a step towards falling in love, Charlotte is already playing matchmaker with the two in her head!).
Lizzie dismisses the idea, saying she promises never to dance with him, because he hurt her own pride- I wonder if Darcy's comment actually affected her a little more deeply than she let on? Maybe she didn't find the fact he only found her “tolerable” amusing after all?


Favourite Quotes:-

“That is very true...and I could easily forgive his pride and he had not mortified mine.”

“Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, Vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

It makes me laugh to actually re-read the start of the book where Darcy really is so rude. It really helps to show his character growth throughout the book!

Lizzie even says herself she can find no fault at all with her sister, despite her being a harsh judge of character, and yet Darcy manages to find a fault in a usually positive thing! I mean come on, "she smiles too much" -pfft.

She is definitely one of the most constant female characters of the classics, very solid- flawed, but solidly written.

Great to hear from you Alisya! I hope you enjoy this read-a-long

I've not read any of those! I'll have to add them to my ever growing list! Thanks Noreen :)

Welcome Alisya, if you have any questions at all feel free to ask :)

Interestingly i'm reading Longbourn at the moment, a retelling of p&p from the servants point of view. Anyway it is told that Bigley's family trade is in sugar, working as part of the "triangular trade" from north england (probably Liverpool)...which hints that his familys fortune was/is made from the slave trade.

i imagine if it had been one of the younger sisters, Darcy's comment would really have hurt them

my mother probably took lessons from her in curtain twitching haha

I know people always say this about Austen, but on this issue especially, she was definitely "ahead of her time"!

Same here, his humour is just so dry somehow so subtle at the same time, and mrs bennet either chooses to ignore it or just plain doesn't catch it!

That line amused me a lot, it's like the pot calling the kettle black! Oh Mrs Bennet...

oh my god Kat, that link might be dangerous on here ;3
COMPASSION FOR MRS BENNET'S NERVES BWAHAHA! That is great!!

I've only really read p&p through once before too so I'm excited to look deeper into the story this time around and make more observations as well! I wonder what it says about our society that most of us do immediate shame Lydia for her behaviour in that situation and not Wickham...