Author: bdelleman
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Jane Bennet isn’t an Old Maid
Common Pride & Prejudice Misconceptions, Part 2 “Jane will be quite an old maid soon, I declare. She is almost three-and-twenty! Lord! how ashamed I should be of not being married before three-and-twenty!” -Lydia Bennet, Pride & Prejudice There is a common perception that women married very young in the past, but this is not…
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Lady Catherine Can’t Fire Mr. Collins
Common Pride & Prejudice Misconceptions, Part 1 Something I see online and in Jane Austen fan fiction from time to time is the idea that Mr. Collins is so devoted to Lady Catherine because she could revoke his living and position as rector. This is absolutely false. So why is Mr. Collins such a suck-up?…
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Why the Tour of Pemberley Matters: Part 2
Pemberley as imagined by Pride & Prejudice 2005 Elizabeth is not mercenary, the tour at Pemberley did not sway her in regards to wealth, but it did provide a very important character reference about Mr. Darcy. I’ve already discussed the contents of the house in Part 1 and the real importance of the portrait. In…
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Why the Tour of Pemberley Matters: Part 1
Pemberley in the 1995 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice It’s funny how often I read people online treating this line from Elizabeth seriously, “I believe I must date it (my love for Darcy) from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley” and thinking that she was swayed by the size of Darcy’s house or…
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Genteel Poverty vs. Actual Poverty in Austen’s Time
Genteel poverty, which is being experienced by the Bates (Emma), the Dashwoods (Sense & Sensibility), possibly the Prices (Mansfield Park, I don’t know if they fully qualify as gentry), and the Bennet girls if they don’t marry in time (Pride & Prejudice) is different than actual poverty, which is something not really addressed in Austen’s…
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Everyone Failed Lydia Bennet
Lydia is definietly a wild and annoying young person, but she’s not the sole author of her fate in Pride & Prejudice, no matter what you read online. The narrator in the novel itself spreads the blame for her actions pretty liberally. Lydia was failed, primarily by her parents, and what happened to her followed…
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Imagining the Regency Era: Mr. Darcy Looks Rich
Or Why the Amneisa Trope Would Never Work for Mr. Darcy George Allen, 1894 I’ve come across a few fan fiction stories where Mr. Darcy has amnesia and is working as a farm hand or something else lower class. I am not going to throw shade at these stories, because fan fiction is all about…
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They Would Not Have Said That! Words that Didn’t Exist in the Regency Era
George Goodwin Kilburne, The Letter When one decides to write Jane Austen Fan Fiction, it is perhaps prudent to use words which Jane Austen herself had access to in her era. One finds themselves eschewing contractions, remembering that “awesome” meant “inspiring awe or dread”, writing out “one and twenty,” and absolutely prohibiting the use of…
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Lady Catherine, A Sympathetic Character?
(colour illustrations: C. E. Brock illustration for the 1895 edition of Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, centre: George Allen) Lady Catherine de Bourgh may be an antagonist in Pride & Prejudice, but I find myself hardly able to call her a villain when I compare her to George Wickham. She is rude, self-centred, and proud. Yet, I…
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It’s Not “Modern” to Call Mr. Bennet a Terrible Father
There is a conversation I have online a lot, it goes something like this: Me: Mr. Bennet should have made sure that his daughters were properly educated and well-mannered. Them: No, you’re being too modern. That was the mother’s job. Me: Not according to Miss Elizabeth Bennet! Mr. Bennet: Famously unconcerned about parenting In fact,…