I've said before on the S&S board that I've met a real-life Willoughby. This was back at college, a dangerously charming young man in much the same way that Willoughby was. And once people learned to see through him, many found him utterly despicable, yet he continued to be able to charm the unsuspecting when he first met them.

Mrs. Jennings always reminded me in many ways of one of my grandmas. She loved to chat and gossip and really had a heart of gold like Mrs. Jennings.

When we were on our last Pemberley trip to England, the rector of the little church in Steventon where Jane's father used to be rector and where Jane and her family attended told us that if we hung around the little village even today, we'd meet a Miss Bates and a whole host of other JA characters there, although he hoped no one would think he resembled Mr. Collins in any way :-)