Donna Leon's book of a lifetime - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Yes, it is about love, but sometime later in life the reader realizes it is also about the love that comes from resignation, seen when Charlotte Lucas accepts the offer of the unspeakable, plodding Mr. Collins. She knows she is not young, and she is poor; she knows she is not a catch, and so she will accept Mr. Collins’ proposal and love him until death do them part. Mr. Bennet is mildly concerned for his daughters’ futures and puts up with his wife: it’s as close to love as this disappointed man can come, the best he can give. Lady Catherine probably loves her daughter, poor thing.
To read the book a half century later is also to see how overwhelmingly the book is about money. (Breaks your heart to read this, huh?) Every man has his worth, and it is expressed in pounds per year. Mr. Darcy is thus worth more than his friend Mr. Bingley, and indeed, he gets the sparkling Lizzie, and Mr. Bingley gets the sober, even-headed Jane. And Mr. Collins, who is not worth as much as either one of them, gets Charlotte Lucas. Frivolous – not to use a stronger word – Lydia gets Wickham, who has to be paid off to have her.
Lizzie and Jane and their sisters are pretty much – I don’t like having to say it – worthless. No dowry, father’s house entailed, no education, not even enough to enable them to be governesses: failed the arrival of Darcy and Bingley, what would await them?
What woman is worth the most? Lady Catherine’s listless, ailing daughter, Anne. One of the comforts of age is that even this grim knowledge of social reality does nothing to diminish the sparkle of life that fills every page of this most glorious of novels, and so the reading of it is a lifelong joy.
By Its Cover is published in hardback on 3 April (William Heinemann, £17.99)
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments