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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
eve ( a showgirl ) ౨ৎ and 2097 other people liked this
"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least."
Here we have a perfect example of Austen’s genius for creating memorable characters. With just four lines of dialogue, right away we know everything there is to know about Mr. Bennet, and we’re only a few pages into the book. He is convinced he is always right (“You mistake me, my dear”). He often says the opposite of what he means (his wife is not at all mistaken here - he lives for nothing more than to vex her constantly). His use of language is so adroit, one can spin his words to mean entirely opposite notions (watch here the high-wire act he performs of starting with the phrase “high respect,” designed purely to get his wife’s hopes up that he is finally conceding a point, and then dashing them all to the ground by the end). Finally, Mr. Bennet loves nothing more than to tease, but rarely with affection. In fact, with the level of insult taking place here, Mr. Bennet will only be outdone in the entirety of the text by the first proposal of Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth. But whereas Darcy will eventually be redeemed by his love for Elizabeth, Mr. Bennet has no such motivation to change—and it is his stubborn self-interest, exemplified by permitting his youngest and most undisciplined daughter a poorly-chaperoned trip just to get her out of his hair, that leads to the spectacular controversy that will later envelop his entire family.
-Not- Just Another Med Student and 900 other people liked this
But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying.
My all-time favourite moment in any of Austen’s books, this is the exact point where every new reader first sits up, their romance radar on high alert. The words “no sooner” are sheer genius, setting up that most proud of heroes, Mr. Darcy, for the most epic of fails. And the way that Austen juxtaposes the two clauses in the first sentence - one so negative (“hardly had a good”), the next so positive (“uncommonly,” “beautiful”) shows the very conflict and duality within Darcy that he will greatly suffer from for not understanding his own mind - and body. He sits so high and lofty on his perch, and this is also the moment at which Austen, with a knowing wink at her audience, starts to throw increasingly painful sticks at him - a critical factor in the intensity of the Darcy and Elizabeth romance.
Glenda and 582 other people liked this
He was directly invited to join their party, but he declined it, observing that he could imagine but two motives for their choosing to walk up and down the room together, with either of which motives his joining them would interfere. "What could he mean? She was dying to know what could be his meaning?"--and asked Elizabeth whether she could at all understand him? "Not at all," was her answer; "but depend upon it, he means to be severe on us, and our surest way of disappointing him will be to ask nothing about it." Miss Bingley, however, was incapable of disappointing Mr. Darcy in anything,
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Jane Austen can be so saucy, and I have long believed that you can tell who her own favourite characters are (give it up for Mary Crawford from MANSFIELD PARK!) by the degree of sauciness she accords them. I adore Mr. Darcy’s response here to Caroline Bingley, because it illustrates two hugely important plot wheels in motion: Darcy’s inability to control his physical attraction to Elizabeth, and the type of subtle flirtation that Darcy, in his arrogance, thinks must be crystal-clear to Elizabeth. He thinks she must be watching him as closely as he knows he is watching her. That both high comedy and high romance will result from his critical misunderstanding of what is going on between them, is the particular alchemy that I think makes Pride and Prejudice one of the most enjoyable books ever written.
Teresa and 367 other people liked this
"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do NOT marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you DO."
This is a very early example in literature of a set-up punchline (you can practically hear a drummer's "rim shot" punctuating the final word). For all his affection towards his daughter Elizabeth, Mr. Bennet is still a very taciturn, moody and unreliable parent. And at this point in the scene, Austen has allowed Mrs. Bennet to go off so hysterically over Elizabeth's rejection of the toad-ish Reverend Mr. Collins, that Mr. Bennet's response to his wife's gloriously unsuspecting demands for support is brilliant in its deceptively measured cadence and forceful tone. I laugh out loud every time I read it.
Emanuelle and 402 other people liked this
"I shall not say you are mistaken," he replied, "because 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."
Elizabeth Clarke and 169 other people liked this
"Do you certainly leave Kent on Saturday?" said she. "Yes--if Darcy does not put it off again. But I am at his disposal. He arranges the business just as he pleases."
I love this moment for what it is hiding: the fact that Darcy keeps delaying his scheduled departure from his aunt’s estate at Rosings because he is such a hot mess right now over Elizabeth. This is, after all, a man usually so outwardly composed that he refuses to engage in even the most minimal niceties of conversation, let alone dancing, unless it pleases him. Along with all the recent “accidental” stalking of Elizabeth on her morning walks about the estate, this passage is the hidden tip-off that Darcy is close to becoming fully at the mercy of his overwhelming physical passion for Elizabeth. Nothing says romance more than the breaking of plans—or a man, so used to being in control, losing any and all sense of it.
Haplo and 267 other people liked this
Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections?--to congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?"
The pompous rhetoric. The self-indulgent alliteration (you can practically hear Mr. Darcy spit out the repetitive letter c’s in his defiant anger.). This first proposal by Darcy to such a delightful and unsuspecting heroine—at the EXACT moment in the text when she most wants to throttle him—is a romantic disaster written for maximum effect. I defy any invested reader at this exact moment to not want to grab Darcy by his Regency collar to stop him from further humiliating himself. Truly the greatest—and most self-sabotaging—proposal scene in all of literature.
Julie Berry and 319 other people liked this
"If you were to give me forty such men, I never could be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness. No, no, let me shift for myself; and, perhaps, if I have very good luck, I may meet with another Mr. Collins in time."
I love all the cosy, candle-lit bedroom scenes between Jane and Elizabeth that are sprinkled throughout the text—the only reliable time that sisters in a crowded household would have to truly confide in each other. Part of what makes Elizabeth’s and Jane’s relationship so special is the degree to which they possess similar delights and shared horrors, despite being so different from each other. Theirs is my favourite filial relationship in literature in part because of how remarkably well Elizabeth comprehends Jane’s nature. Her words here about Jane’s disposition correlating to her happiness are both prophetic and extremely self-aware. I love how Deborah Moggach also skillfully conveys this sisterly understanding in her screenplay for the 2005 Joe Wright film adaptation, when she has Elizabeth angrily explain to Darcy that Jane’s reticence about her feelings for Mr. Bingley is due to her shyness—a smackdown that also says, take THAT Mr. Darcy, for thinking sincere female attention must be telegraphed for all to see! I also love how throughout Austen’s text, Jane delights in Elizabeth’s humour and intelligence exactly like we do. It makes us feel as if we, too, are in the exact same room as these two lovely and vital young women, in on the joke, privileged to be witness to their conversation. And the little zinger at the end—Elizabeth feigning for even one second that a Mr. Collins could ever be reconsidered as a spouse—is the perfect mic drop after a most loving, affectionate and real speech.
Samantha and 230 other people liked this
"How could you begin?" said she. "I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what could set you off in the first place?" "I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I HAD begun."
THE PAY-OFF. All the banter, the swoony plot points, the extremely hot spectacle of a man and woman whose bodies want what their minds cannot yet understand—Austen knew, better than anyone, how after all that, the reader now needs THIS: the full and leisurely accounting of what was really going on in Darcy’s mind—or body—when he was belittling Elizabeth’s appearance, giving her the silent treatment, crashing an unlikeable aunt’s estate, and using Bingley and Jane as romantic foils and scapegoats for his own attraction to a property-less Bennet sister. Never was more revealed about the state of a lovesick man’s mind than by the words “I was in the middle before I knew that I HAD begun.” Let us all take a moment to sigh—and may you all fall in love one day EXACTLY like this.
Natalie Jenner's new book JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY comes out May 26, 2020. Find out more on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/43557477?ref=p&p
abthebooknerd and 357 other people liked this
If he is willing to actually go into depth on ideas, then he is fine with me.