Posted by The Mysterious H.C. on May 17, 1997 at 21:53:40:
In reply to Oops posted by Amy on May 15, 1997 at 21:44:29
] You know what's funny , though, the older I get, the older I want the old bags to be. Like, Lady C could be my age, but somehow I don't want to think of her that way. It's like when we over-40 types read these, we still like to ID with the heroine and pretend we are their age. Do you know what I mean?
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Amy, Lady Catherine could only be around your age if she were much younger than her late sister (Darcy's mother), and/or if she married early and/or if she had Anne de Bourgh soon after her marriage and/or if Anne de Bourgh is much younger than Darcy (probably it would take several of these circumstances in combination).
Sure, it's mathematically possible, but it doesn't seem very likely in the overall world of the novel -- Lady Catherine doesn't strike me as the youngest sibling type, and Anne de Bourgh seems to be somewhere around Darcy's age (remember, "while in their cradles, we planned the union"! 
). In my opinion, Lady Catherine is probably at least 5 years older than you are.
On the other hand, Mrs. Bennet could very well be your age -- she married 23 years ago, and I don't see any reason why she couldn't have done so at the age of 19.
As for Mrs. Norris, she's the eldest of the three Ward sisters (Lady Bertram, Mrs. Norris, and Mrs. Price), so she's at least a year older than Lady Bertram (whose eldest child, Tom, is about 26), so she's also probably at least five years older than you are....
So, AMy, two out three ain't bad, right? 
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