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Week 3 Impressions: A “Pride and Prejudice” Read-Along

This chunk involved the rest of volume 2, and what a doozy it was! I started to do mini recaps of each chapter, but I found that wasn’t working this time around. I want to resist summarizing, and that’s not easy. In any case, I present a scattered collection of thoughts on this third week of reading.

This volume mostly takes place at the Hunsford parsonage (where Mr. Collins and Charlotte reside). Lizzy takes the time to enjoy the change of pace. It’s a bit of a retreat for her (until it’s not). She keeps bumping into Mr. Darcy or his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam. 

We get to meet Lady Catherine in this section. My, she’s a fussy, critical woman.  But also rather funny—in a Lady Bracknell sort of way (that’s for you Oscar Wilde/Importance of Being Earnest fans). Lizzy holds her own with Lady Catherine: “Elizabeth suspected herself to be the first creature who had ever dared to trifle with so much dignified impertinence.” 

My new impression is that Mr. Collins and Charlotte are seemingly happy, or at least content? Maybe this wasn’t a terrible match after all?

But that’s just it! That’s the whole point of this book (and part of the fun of reading this in segments with others). Jane Austen sets up a whole spectrum of impressions and expectations. We’re led to believe something about a character and then the reverse happens! (I suppose that’s the mark of any good storyteller.) This book appears to be, on one hand, the dangers of cementing a first impression in your mind. In fact, the original title for this was First Impressions. And that’s mighty revealing, isn’t it?

Anyway, I’m hopeful Charlotte and Mr. Collins can make it work. But who knows. 

Another major theme is that folks should marry for a balance of love and security (money). It shouldn’t tip too far in any direction. And we start to realize that, despite their charm and comic affectations, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are not the paragon of parenting or marriage. And their behavior has consequences! But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get back to Lizzy and Darcy.

Reader, I have to confess my jaw dropped when Darcy strolled into the house and declared his love for Lizzy. I thought there was going to be a bit more preamble. I suppose there was a flirty exchange earlier, when the two  were truly alone together for the first time. It was still antagonistic, but there was a playful air about it? I dunno. Anyway, I wasn’t expecting this Event so early on!

Once Darcy proposes, things go terribly. Lizzy really goes for the jugular here. These two are stubborn, prideful and prejudicial people. (sidenote: I peeked at a blog post that says it’s easy to place Darcy as the proud one and Lizzy as prejudicial, but the post also argues that the opposite is true).

Lizzy: “Long before it had taken place [the Jane and Bingley drama], my opinion of you was decided.”

Darcry (later on): “But perhaps these offences might have been overlooked, had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design.”

Lizzy: “You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it.” (and a bit later) “I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”

Yikes!

Anyway, Darcy writes a very long letter to her, she reads it, and it sends her into quite an awakening. I won’t relay all that went down. But when Lizzy starts to think deeply about the Wickham/Darcy feud, Lizzy starts to understand that “it was impossible not to feel there was gross duplicity on one side of the other.” And this she begins to untangle all sorts of factors.

Maybe Jane and Bingley aren’t quite the match afterall?
Maybe Wickham is a dangerous cad?

Maybe the Bennets, as a whole, are an embarrassing imprudent family?

Lizzy goes into a spiral that would serve as quite an aria if this were turned into an opera:

“How descpicably have I acted! I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! Who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity, in useless or blameless distrust–How humiliating is this discovery!–Yes, how just a humiliation!–Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly.–Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment, I never knew myself.”

WHEW!

There is so much more to unpack here, and I guess I’m having trouble resisting the urge to recap and provide a play-by-play reaction to everything that happens in this section. So I’m going to wrap things up for now. We’re in the thick of it. Lizzy is attempting to do some damage control with her family (especially since young Lydia is off to Brighton). She also has to figure out how much Darcy news share with Jane and others. And we end the volume with a visit to Pemberley!

Before leaving with the daily schedule for Week 4, I’d like to share a small list of two-word phrases that work wonderfully together. The sound alone of these combinations gives delight. (And I know at least one of them is from Shakespeare, so you know Austen is thinking about sound and rhythm of language.)

• Dignified impertinence
• Restless ecstasy (this is from Shakespeare’s Macbeth)
• Boundless influence
• Wild volatility
• Clamourous happiness
• Querulous serenity

Which one is your favorite?

Here’s the daily schedule for week 4. After that, there’ll be one more shorter section and we’re all done!

Week 1 Thoughts: A “Pride and Prejudice” Read-Along

Hello, everyone!

Here’s the first of my weekly check-ins on our collective reading of Pride and Prejudice.

If the first section of this book were an animal it would be a…
A hummingbird. The way Austen darts around from character to character, scene to scene is energetic and quick. I don’t even know who’s speaking some of the time! I can usually figure it out, but there are times when I need to slow down my reading. The effect is charming more than anything.

The Point of View in this book is fascinating.
I’m gonna get a little English major-y on you. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that has an omniscient third person point of view. This means that the writing can dart in and out of the minds of any character at any given time. I figured we’d be spending most of the time in Elizabeth Bennet’s head; yet, that hummingbird of a narrator goes from one flower/character to the other quickly, with little notice. And because of that, we get little treats. We KNOW that Mr. Darcy admires Lizzy already. And we also know that Lizzy doesn’t know this. So the book has a secret relationship with the reader. A lot of contemporary authors writing in third person usually stick to a single character to follow in a whole book. OR, if it’s a new chapter, the chapter may focus on a single character and shift to another in the next. But Austen isn’t concerned with that kind of rigid structure. I think it adds to the swirl and bounce of it all, and I’m all for it.

Favorite scene so far:
The great scene (in chapter X) where Miss Bingley comments on Mr. Darcy’s letter writing. It starts off as a seemingly casual conversation about the length of letters and turns into a more philosophical debate about humility and how easily influenced someone may be. I am not explaining this well, but it was fun.

Runner-up favorite scene:
The collision of the sisters and all these men in the village: Mr. Denny, Mr. Wickham, Mr. Bingley, Mr. Darcy, and let’s not forget Mr. Collins has “just entered the chat,” so to speak. That’s five men for five daughters… But there’s something amiss. A Look of Significance has passed between Darcy and Wickham. What is that about???

Word I circled because i had never encountered it before:
Ductility

On Mrs. Bennet
It has been ages since I’ve seen that classic BBC miniseries. When I started reading this, I was pulled into a vortex of how meddlesome and, honestly, grating she can be. But in reading this book, I cannot help but sympathize with her. She may not be the most tactful character, but she has FIVE DAUGHTERS, each with not much to offer in terms of fortune. Plus she’s funny and ridiculously hopeful. Her moods change in an instant. She seizes the opportunities she has—like when she realizes Jane is not severely ill but maybe just ill enough to stay with the Bingleys for longer than necessary.

What else?
There was no easy settling into the action of the book. Austen doesn’t spend a ton of time setting the scene. I was kind of expecting an early chapter to have an introduction of each daughter. (“let’s go down the line and get a nice long paragraph on each sister.”) We get no introduction of Catherine (or Kitty, I believe). I was pleased to see that bookish Mary got an early mention (she’s the focus of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley). But Austen cuts to the chase and twists and turns to the action and lets us catch up. I feel like I’m in good hands. I don’t think I would enjoy this as much if Austen were to bog us down with exposition.

What impressions do you have? What questions do you have?

There are MANY characters to juggle (oh! That reminds me that we’ve got some more eligible women on the fringes who seem, on paper, to be more qualified marriage candidates than any of the Bennets–we’re in for some serious drama, aren’t we?!) 

I sometimes have trouble untangling what lies at the core of certain debates and conversations.

There’s the ever-present element of characters trying to live up to societal norms and codes. It almost always seems like no one can say what they truly think or believe at the risk of humiliating someone or having irredeemably bad manners.

Okay, I’m going to leave that for now. This is a rich, vibrant world and I’m eager to enjoy the upcoming twists and turns.

Feel free to share you comments and questions on the blog, or share your thoughts on social media. Don’t forget to use the tag #CommonwealReadAlong when you post. That way others can find it and chime in if you’d like.

And here’s the daily reading schedule for this week: