Greetings, friends! Hope you are having a great Friday! Even though it wasn’t long ago that C. P. Odom was here celebrating Perilous Siege, Colin is back today because he has another new book to celebrate! Woot woot! A Covenant of Marriage released last month, and it sounds like a very intriguing Pride and Prejudice variation where Elizabeth is forced to marry against her will! 😳 Colin shares both a fun guest post and an excerpt from A Covenant of Marriage with you all today, we hope you enjoy!!

For this post, I decided to make a list of some of my favorite scenes from Pride and Prejudice. I don’t pretend this is a comprehensive list—it’s just what I came up with after doing a quick review to Austen’s text. So herewith are my favorites:

1. Elizabeth Bennet’s confrontation with Lady Catherine de Bourgh at Longbourn:

This scene likely would make most reader’s top five moments from Pride and Prejudice because it is so central to Elizabeth’s intelligence, her courage, her strength of character, and, probably most important to modern readers, her independence. Jane Austen wrote about the world in which she lived, and in that world, women were defined by their husbands rather than by their own character and accomplishments. Hardly another young woman of genteel birth at that time would have turned down Darcy’s first proposal, which would have ensured that Elizabeth’s mothers and sisters did not fall into absolute destitution and starve in the streets. This last sentence is not hyperbole—it was real, and Austen knew it was real. She didn’t like the boundaries and constraints on women of her time, and she did her best to undermine these social mores of her world, though she had to be deft and subversive in doing so, but she was well aware of the realities of her culture.

I suspect that many readers look upon Lady Catherine’s journey to Longbourn as having been ill-conceived and doomed to failure, but I’m of the opposite opinion. Lady Catherine is the sister of a great noble, an Earl, and thus entitled to be known throughout her life as “your ladyship.” She’s arrogant, imperious, and used to always getting her own way and not being contradicted. As a result, she would have descended on this obscure daughter of a nondescript country gentleman with total confidence in being able to overawe her and bend her to her will, which was to force Elizabeth to give up any presence to a connection with Darcy and thus preserve him as a future husband for her own daughter.

Instead, she runs into a buzz saw. From her first statements about knowing that the rumors about Elizabeth marrying her nephew had to be untrue, Elizabeth coolly states, “If you believed it impossible to be true, I wonder you took the trouble of coming so far. What could your ladyship propose by it?”

For a woman’s of Lady Catherine’s character, such a stinging comeback would have to drive her berserk—except I don’t think ladies went berserk in the Regency! And it gets worse from there. I simply love this whole scene.

2. The scene in Ch. 6 where Charlotte offers her opinions to Elizabeth when she advises against Jane concealing her affection from Bingley and says that it is better to know as little as possible about your future spouse:

Perhaps this scene might not seem all that important to many readers of P&P, since they are so wholly rooting for Elizabeth Bennet that Charlotte’s advice seems inane and completely irrelevant to their heroine. And Elizabeth summarizes her astonishment at what Charlotte is advising when she says, “You make me laugh, Charlotte; but it is not sound. You know it is not sound, and that you would never act in this way yourself.”

But of course, Charlotte does act exactly like that, since she is twenty-seven, has one foot into the dreaded realm of spinsterhood, and wants a family and establishment of her own more than she wants to marry for love. This is Austen at her most incisive and subversive of the social customs relating to women, as she plants landmines that will blow up in the faces of her characters later in the story (Jane will lose Bingley because she is so reserved that no one other than her sister knows the depth of her feeling, and then Charlotte secures a marriage to Collins).

3. The scene in Ch. 20 in Mr. Bennet’s library where Mrs. Bennet demands that her husband force Elizabeth to marry Collins (and thus save her sisters from destitution):

This scene is really short and sweet. Despite the fact that at least one of the Bennet sisters needs to marry well so as to provide a home to the others until they marry, Collins is so odious that few readers could imagine Elizabeth Bennet actually marrying him.

In any case, my favorite paragraph is presaged by Mr. Bennet stating that his wife demands that Elizabeth marring Collins or she (Mrs. Bennet) will never see Elizabeth again.

Mr. Bennet then says, with exquisite wittiness, “An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.”

I have to grin every time I read this!

4. Darcy’s proposal in Ch. 34 combined with his letter in Ch. 35:

I have to say that this scene is really not so much one of my favorites as it is so uniquely significant. All the ill-advised statements by Darcy and the equally mistaken defense of Wickham combine to make this a section that must be studied by an author if they are going to remain true to Jane Austen’s vision. In fact, the very incivility of Darcy’s side of the proposal first inspired me to start writing A Most Civil Proposal back in the early 2000’s, so perhaps I might be forgiven by including this scene in my list.

And what could be more critical to the development of Elizabeth Bennet’s character than to read such an intense, heartfelt, and informative missive? Having one’s nose rubbed into your immature and impulsive mistakes is most unpleasant and even degrading. The usual reaction to such information is to either reject it utterly and continue on as before or to accept the truth as well as one’s mistakes and grow. Again, these scenes are more significant than enjoyable, but understanding both proposal and explanatory letter are critical to everything that follows.

5. The scene in Ch. 35 where, following the visit of Elizabeth to Pemberley, Caroline Bingley was cataloguing Elizabeth’s defects when she provoked a response much different than what she desired.

This is another short and sweet scene, when Darcy responds to Miss Bingley’s criticisms when he says “. . . it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.” Boom! Miss Bingley implodes in a cloud of green smoke and disappears!

Well, not really. I wonder if there is some kind of possible variation there?

That’s all for now. Probably other readers might disagree with some or all of my selections, especially since some of my reason are based on the fact that I’ve written five Pride and Prejudice variations. But that’s another discussion.

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I loved hearing about your favorite moments from Pride and Prejudice, Colin! Some are very unique and interesting choices! Thank you so much for sharing! 

 Excerpt from Chapter 9

It is prosperity that gives us friends, adversity that proves them.

Proverb

Saturday, September 7, 1816
Gardiner residence, London

When Fitzwilliam Darcy descended from his coach and rapped on the front door of the Gardiner home on Gracechurch Street, a maid was quick to open it and conduct him upstairs.

Mrs. Gardiner greeted him warmly in the front parlour, which was already occupied by several couples. He nodded greetings to those he knew, and Mrs Gardiner introduced him to the remaining pair. One was a painter who was beginning to be recognized, and the other taught at Cambridge. Darcy again marvelled at the diversity of people the Gardiners knew, and he was acutely aware that he found the conversation at Mrs. Gardiner’s dinner parties more engaging than at most of the other social engagements he attended.

An unfamiliar painting caught his eye, and he was brought up short when he stepped over to inspect it. The painting was an excellently rendered portrait of the remaining Bennet sisters. He was stunned by the skill of the painter in capturing each subject so accurately, but he had little interest in three of them. His eyes were locked on the petite girl sitting in front, and he felt his stomach roil as he saw his Elizabeth looking back at him from the canvas.

Not my Elizabeth, he thought unhappily.

The portrait was large, nearly half life-size, and Darcy turned his head when he realized someone had stepped up beside him.

“Are you unwell, Mr. Darcy?” Mrs. Gardiner asked.

“No, no. I just felt a little dizzy for a moment, but I am well now.”

“Are you sure? May I—”

“I was just admiring your new portrait.” He could see Mrs. Gardiner was pleased he had taken notice.

“Is it not marvellous?” she asked. “Mr. Haines finished it just last week. Each of the girls posed when they came to visit, and I think he has captured all of them impeccably.”

“It is excellent work,” Darcy agreed.

He thought Haines had captured Elizabeth with remarkable skill, but he could tell she had tried to maintain a look of serenity for the portrait.

The artist had captured more than her beauty, though that aspect of his portrait was enough to make Darcy’s heart ache with the memory of her. It also showed a look of wistful sadness behind Elizabeth’s pretence of tranquillity, and Darcy’s throat tightened with the knowledge Elizabeth had been so unfairly trapped by the machinations of Wickham and the foolishness of her sister.

For what seemed the thousandth time, Darcy had an overwhelming impulse to ride to Hertfordshire and try again to win her affection, but then he heard Elizabeth’s voice in his ears, raised in righteous wrath as she blasted his hopes forever. He was certain he could not endure another such rejection, and he had no doubt one would be instantly and vociferously issued. No, it could never be.

Mrs. Gardiner saw the emotions chase across her friend’s handsome visage as he fought to regain his composure.

***

It was not until later in the evening that Elizabeth’s aunt had a chance to talk to her husband about what she had witnessed.

“I am beginning to think there is some past connexion between one of our nieces and Mr. Darcy,” she told him, and Mr. Gardiner raised his eyebrows at the notion.

She related what she had observed earlier. “You should have seen him. He went pale as a sheet and almost reeled against the wall, but he could not take his eyes off the portrait. And he did not hear me at first when I asked if he was feeling unwell.”

“That does sound rather curious. I wonder why the painting moved him. It is well executed, to be sure, but Mr. Darcy is far too sensible to be overly affected by the artistic merits of a family portrait.”

“Exactly! He was affected by someone in the portrait, and I am certain it has to be Lizzy.”

“Elizabeth! That is quite surprising, but you are likely correct. We know she met him again when she visited her friend in Kent.”

“And Jane was always interested in Mr. Bingley. But if Mr. Darcy were interested in Lizzy, why did he never act on the attraction? I know the scandal has tainted the sisters’ reputations, but the reaction I saw tonight looked far too strong to be daunted by the opinions of others.”

“And remember what he did for Lydia. He told us his reasons, which are decidedly reasonable if somewhat unusual. However, his actions would be even more understandable if he had been attracted to Elizabeth.”

Mrs. Gardiner’s brows knit in consternation. “I wonder why, if Darcy had developed a preference for Lizzy, he never showed any sign of it. Certainly, Lizzy has been most forthright in declaring her opinion of him.”

“Very likely he means to make a more suitable marriage, my dear. Even before the distasteful events, the Bennet family could have little to attract a connexion with such a family as Darcy’s.”

The reaction I saw in him tonight makes me wonder. He looked in pain as he stared at the portrait.”

“Interesting,” he said thoughtfully. “But obviously, nothing could have happened between the two of them when they knew each other in Hertfordshire. It was too brief an acquaintance.”

“It was long enough for Jane to develop a preference for Mr. Bingley. She has never recovered from her disappointment when he left Netherfield.”

“True,” her husband said sadly. “Well, all of this is in the past and cannot be changed. It does little good to dwell on unhappy memories. One has to put such events in their place and move on to the affairs of the present.”

“I have a feeling Mr. Darcy would not be able to follow that advice if you were to give it, my dear.”

“That is often the case when one offers advice,” responded Mr. Gardiner with a chuckle and a twinkle in his eye.

“So, what do we do? Simply ignore the situation?”

“It would probably be more prudent, but I recognize the look on your face. You want to do something, do you not?”

“I cannot ignore the situation I saw tonight. I like Mr. Darcy, and I cannot bear to think of him in such pain. And there is Elizabeth’s welfare to think of. She will be fortunate to marry a tradesman with a respectable income. She will be inclined to settle for a marriage of convenience because she dearly wants a family. We cannot allow that to happen. Can you think of anything we can do?”

“Your comment about Lizzy’s reduced prospects is pertinent. In truth, Darcy could provide a more substantial home for their children, and I do not doubt he would treat her well. It is assuredly a challenging dilemma, but we need more information. Perhaps I can raise the subject of their past if I can find the proper moment.”

“And when would that moment be?”

“It would have to be sometime when Darcy and I were alone. Perhaps I can find an occasion to invite him here.”

“It would have to be most tactfully done, Edward.” Mrs. Gardiner smiled. “It is fortunate that tact is one of your strong points.”

“And your kind heart again reminds me why I married you, my dear,” he returned her smile before easing her nightgown from her shoulders. She stepped gracefully out of it and went into his open arms.

***

Ooh! The Gardiners are about to do some meddling! I like it! 👍🏼 Poor Darcy! I wonder what will happen when he sees Elizabeth in person again! 😯

~~~

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~ About Colin ~

By training, I’m a retired engineer, born in Texas, raised in Oklahoma, and graduated from the University of Oklahoma. Sandwiched in there was a stint in the Marines, and I’ve lived in Arizona since 1977, working first for Motorola and then General Dynamics.

I raised two sons with my first wife, Margaret, before her untimely death from cancer, and my second wife, Jeanine, and I adopted two girls from China. The older of my daughters recently graduated with an engineering degree and is working in Phoenix, and the younger girl is heading toward a nursing degree.

I’ve always been a voracious reader and collector of books, and my favorite genres are science fiction, historical fiction, histories, and, in recent years, reading (and later writing) Jane Austen romantic fiction. This late-developing interest was indirectly stimulated when I read my late wife’s beloved Jane Austen books after her passing. One thing led to another, and I now have four novels published: A Most Civil Proposal (2013), Consequences (2014), Pride, Prejudice, and Secrets (2015), and Perilous Siege (2019). Two of my books are now audiobooks, A Most Civil Proposal and Pride, Prejudice, and Secrets.

I retired from engineering in 2011, but I still live in Arizona with my family, a pair of dogs (one of which is stubbornly untrainable), and a pair of rather strange cats. My hobbies are reading, woodworking, and watching college football and LPGA golf (the girls are much nicer than the guys, as well as being fiendishly good putters). Lately I’ve reverted back to my younger years and have taken up building plastic model aircraft and ships (when I can find the time).

GIVEAWAY TIME!

Meryton Press is generously giving away 8 ebook editions of A Covenant of Marriage in conjunction with this blog tour!!  Woot woot!  

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Thank you to Janet Taylor, Meryton Press, and C.P. Odom for making this blog tour possible!!

Be sure to check out the rest of A Covenant of Marriage Blog Tour happening now!