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Posted by Kali on October 12, 1996 at 22:25:26:
: We understand wanting wealth in the family but this woman is obsessed!
: Wanting Lizzie to marry Mr. Colllins (that toad-with no social grace whatsoever!)
: Torturing Jane over Bingley? Yes, it paid off but we both agree no man is
: worth almost dying of a fever, regardless of how many pounds a year
: he has! (Darcy maybe....)When Lydia runs away with Wickham, she's more
: worried she won't know where to shop and that Mr. Bennet will be shot
: so they'll all be tossed out by the Collins'.What a nut!
___________________
Mrs. Bennet _is_ obsessed. Her purpose in life, as the mother of five unmarried daughters with virtually no dowry, is to get them all married. It's ironic in her attempts to assure her daughters' happiness she either makes them miserable or fails completely to comprehend their needs.
- K
Posted by Joan, too on October 12, 1996 at 22:29:51:
: What family is associated with Chatsworth?
: Amy
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Chatsworth belonged to the Dukes of Devonshire, the 6th Duke of which (in the 1820-30s) had a nearby village destroyed and rebuilt out of sight of the house.
Joan, too
Posted by Donna on October 12, 1996 at 22:31:24:
: :Did you see him in Circle of Friends? He did a good acting job, but my! how different he looked: dull and heavy. I could hardly believe it was the same person.
: I agree, I thought he looked horrible in Circle of Friends ~
: but that he DID play the part well.
___________________
I don't think he looked horrible, dull, or heavy! He played a horrible person. He always looks and sounds so great especially when he first meets Nan. Remember? When he is riding his horse when we first see him too. I've only seem a few of his movies.
I know your trying to get people to talk, this will do it.
ciao Donna
Posted by Kali on October 12, 1996 at 22:31:38:
Be watching for reruns on Masterpiece THeatre - apparently, every PBS station has its own airing schedule. WETA, the Washington, DC affiliate, re-aired it in July, and everyone else would be insane not to rerun it themselves.
And yes, Guy Thwaite (Greg Wise) is wonderful...the book is available - though Edith Wharton did not finish it herself - through mail order if not in bookstores.
Posted by Kali on October 12, 1996 at 22:40:29:
: Well Lilian, I am an Aussie male, and I do enjoy reading JA,
: and will the adaptions as soon as I can get them on video.
___________________
So, what got you hooked?
- K
Posted by Kali on October 12, 1996 at 22:43:36:
: :
: : : Actually, no. My mother's family is from Greece, but they
: : : are ethnic Macedonians (a slavic nationality). I'm also 1/4
: : : German and 1/4 Finnish.
: : : Ann
: :
: : ___________________
: :
: : Close enough! ;)
: : - K
:
: ___________________
:
: Oh my gosh -- I'm Greek as well. My real name is Zaharula -- translated to Candy -- then more formally, Candace.
___________________
Yee Haw! We should have a convention! :)
- K
Posted by Kali on October 12, 1996 at 22:50:41:
:
: Oh my gosh -- I'm Greek as well. My real name is Zaharula -- translated to Candy -- then more formally, Candace.
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Yay! Finally, someone who understands what it's like to have a mouthful of a Greek name!
- K
Posted by The Mysterious H.C. on October 12, 1996 at 22:51:59:
: How come Anne De Bourgh is allowed to inherit Rosings but none of the Bennet sisters are allowed to inherit Longbourn?
___________________
Lady Catherine then observed,
``Your father's estate is entailed on Mr. Collins, I think. For your
sake,'' turning to Charlotte, ``I am glad of it; but otherwise I see
no occasion for entailing estates from the female line. -- It was not
thought necessary in Sir Lewis de Bourgh's family.''
Posted by The Mysterious H.C. on October 12, 1996 at 23:07:45:
: : : The only great house I saw was Blenheim. Would Pemberley have been so grand, do you think?
: : Blenheim is actually famous for being a grand monstrosity plopped into the middle of the English countryside -- NOTHING is like Blenheim, so Pemberley wouldn't have been like Blemheim.
: Is the house truly seen as a joke? I was in awe. But now you show it to me in a different light, the place does look rather like one of Miss Bingley's hats.
: Amy
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Not as a joke exactly, but as kind of a forbidding ungemütlich monumental architecture (not really a typical gentleman's country seat).
(By the way, I can't see the picture you've included in your posting on the computer setup I'm using right at the moment -- and so also no picture with this message, sorry.)
Posted by Kali on October 12, 1996 at 23:10:49:
: : I have always been uncomfortable with the idea of Mr. Right or a Knight in shinning armor. Mr Right sounds dull, and I don't need to be saved. I would however like to find a soulmate......
:
: Thank you Mich for your beautifully written post. JA makes her characters so real and familiar that we are quite swept along with their growth in character and understanding until they are able to truly choose each other. Thank you for expressing it so well.
: Katherine
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You're both so right. Darcy and Lizzie are fictional characters we can fall in love with in good conscience! They deserve eachother's - and our - love.
- K
Posted by Joan, too on October 12, 1996 at 23:29:19:
: Blenheim is actually famous for being a grand monstrosity plopped into the middle of the English countryside -- NOTHING is like Blenheim, so Pemberley wouldn't have been like Blemheim.
___________________
Indeed, sir, I am all astonishment! I have never heard it spoken of thus. In the Automobile Associations's "Treasures of Britain" is is spoken of as "the masterpiece of Sir John Vanbrugh" which goes on to say that "the greatest artists and craftsmen of the day worked on the interior decoration" and Queen Anne's own gardener, Henry Wise, created extensive gardens in the elaborate formal manner of those in Versailles. Unfortunately for Wise, the fashion in garden design changed radically and the formal French style became despised. Except for the Kitchen Garden, all of Wise's gardens were obliterated and re-done by Capability Brown in the natural park-like landscape then in vogue. In 1925 the 9th Duke of Marlborough commissioned Achille Duchene to re-create a formal garden according to the original concept of Henry Wise below one of the terraces of the palace overlooking the "natural" lake which was created by Capability Brown by damming up the River Glyme.
Joan, too
Posted by Cheryl on October 13, 1996 at 00:16:33:
This week's chapters open with Mr. Collins's arrival on the scene. We have lately talked a great deal of Mr. Collins so I would like to dwell upon Mr. Bennet's reaction to the visitor.
Mr. Bennet's method of "pulling a fast one" on his family where Mr. Collins is concerned, while amusing to read, must have been vexing for his family. He receives a letter from Mr. Collins, considers it a matter of "some urgency" but waits two weeks to reply! So for a month he has known Mr. Collins was coming, but declines to tell his family until the very morning of his arrival. I would be upset, especially if I were Mrs. Bennet who had to make arrangements for company on a few hours notice. But this gives us a great glimpse into Mr. Bennet's character; he loves to have secrets, he loves to astonish his family and have them importune him with a thousand questions (note also his visit to Mr. Bingley and the delight he has in springing that on the family.) This is one of the ways Mr. Bennet amuses himself, but it could be tiresome being married to such a man.
Well, Mr. Collins arrives with Mr. Bennet in great expectation of being terribly amused by him. We find that "all his expectations were fully answered. His cousin was as absurd as he had hoped." But by tea time Mr. Bennet is tiring of him and by the next morning is "anxious to get rid of him and have his library to himself." The novelty of Mr. Collins soons wears thin and now he has to put up with an unpleasant guest for another 10 days. Serves him right, I say. I only hope Mr. Collins left Lizzy's side several times a day to woo the father in his library.
Cheryl
Posted by Cheryl on October 13, 1996 at 00:38:48:
Well, you know the old saying about telling a lie; Make it big, repeat it often and people will believe it.
Wickham's big lie about Darcy is outrageous. There are clues aplenty that it is a lie and if Lizzy were not so angry with Darcy or so taken by Wickham's attentions to her, she would have seen them. Even so, she did feel the impropriety of Wickham's "spilling his guts" on so little acquaintance, even if she didn't fully recognize it. Lizzy longed to know the connection between Darcy and Wickham but "could not hope to be told," who would share such an intimate information on such short acquaintence, why Wickham would. "Delicacy prevented further inquiry," but Wickham has no such qualms and tells more. Wickham says "I can never expose him," but is that not what he is doing and will continue to do to anyone who will listen to him? Lizzy is so blinded by her dislike of Darcy that she "honored him (Wickham) for such feelings and thought him handsomer than ever."
But Wickham is no fool. He is very careful to sound Lizzy out about her knowledge of Darcy and his reputation in the neighborhood before he begins his tale of woe. He also knows that The Big Lie is more easily believed if there is an element of truth to it. So he tells some of Darcy's good qualities which only makes Lizzy admire his forbearance even more.
Another brilliant element in Lizzy's belief of the lie is that Jane Austen has the most unsympathetic and hated (and smackable) character in the book tell the truth, namely, Miss Bingley. Who would believe anything Miss Bingley says? And so Wickham's Big Lie now has the aura of the Absolute Truth.
Cheryl
Posted by Cheryl on October 13, 1996 at 00:55:11:
All I have to say about the proposal itself is: ick, ick, ick!
But there was a mention of second proposals that I really only caught for the first time on this read through that shows some more of Jane Austen's use of foreshadowing. Mr Collins understands that young ladies refuse a man the first time so that she may accept the second (or third) time they are asked. Lizzy replies, "I am not one of those young ladies... who are so daring as to risk their happiness on the chance of being asked a second time." But alas Lizzy, your happiness *will* depend upon being asked a second time.
Cheryl
Posted by kathleen on October 13, 1996 at 06:57:21:
: Couldn't rest in peace until we had The Henry Song:
. . . . . .
: For we're all in Au---- of Henry!
: I link Henry
: You link Henry
: I link Henry
: You link Henry
: Churchyard!
___________________
Awesome! This was Saturday's laugh out loud moment -- I was nearly overcome
w/ one of Lydia's snorts.
kathleen
Posted by Katherine on October 13, 1996 at 06:59:07:
: Grace:
: Perfect.
: : Henry, oh Henry, the very best of men 's he!
: We really do love ya, pal.
: Amy
Amy - ALMOST perfect. In the spirit of the man, don't we need the perfect illustration....
Grace - Thank you.
Mr. M.H.C. - Smart, funny and knows the words to Groucho Marx songs...wow..sigh.
Katherine
Follow Ups:
Posted by Amy on October 13, 1996 at 08:13:13:
Amy
Follow Ups:
Posted by Amy on October 13, 1996 at 08:29:06:
: Amy - ALMOST perfect. In the spirit of the man, don't we need the perfect illustration....
___________________
Well, yes.
Amy
Posted by Grace on October 13, 1996 at 09:14:28:
: Pray don't. I beg you. I'm serious.
___________________
: So sorry, Amy. I wouldn't wish to cause you even a moment's concern over such a silly matter.
Posted by Cheryl on October 13, 1996 at 09:16:19:
:
I suppose through the relatives grapevine. I have relations I have not seen in years, but am kept informed (whether I want to be or not) on all the particulars pertaining to births, deaths, divorces, and sundry operations by obliging family members. But I do like the idea of "wife candidate" spies. Perhaps a mole in Mr. Phillips office, perhaps even a clerk who became so enamored with Mary that he eventually married her?
:
:Amy
I think you are right on the money here, Amy. He even concludes his list of reasons for marrying by saying that Lady Catherine suggested it (...but perhaps he should have mentioned that first...) and even conscended to relate the traits she should have. It does sound more like *she* is chosing a wife, does it not?
Cheryl
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