Book Review: Pride & Prejudice
Oct. 1st, 2022 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI read Pride and Prejudice for the first time in high school, and hadn’t reread it until now. However, I’ve seen a bunch of adaptations, not least my beloved Lizzie Bennet Diaries, the modern-day vlog retelling over which I obsessed for a year. So it’s interesting to see how both the passage of time and the new light shed on the story by adaptations has changed my opinions over time.
Of course in some cases, I mean that my opinion has come full circle. In high school, I shared Elizabeth’s horror when her friend Charlotte agreed to marry that rat Mr. Collins. Later on, I grew more sympathetic to Charlotte: surely marrying Collins would be better than being a spinster in Regency England! (My recollection is that the 2005 adaptation makes this point with particular force.)
Rereading it now, it occurred to me that Jane Austen, Regency Spinster, probably has a better idea than I do what fates would be worse than being a Regency spinster, and she is absolutely right that being married to Mr. Collins would be on the list, at least for sensible, level-headed Charlotte Lucas. Moralistic Mary Bennet and Mr. Collins might have been well-suited, although they would have encouraged each other’s worst tendencies and become utterly unbearable to everyone else. Compare their reactions to Lydia’s elopement: Mary reflects piously how easily a woman’s precious reputation can be stained, while Mr. Collins writes to the Bennets to state that he’s shocked, shocked that they received Lydia at their house after the way she behaved! A match made in heaven. Pity Mr. Collins didn’t think of it.
Speaking of Lydia. Modern adaptations often seem troubled by Austen’s unsparing portrayal: she is gleefully unrepentant when she returns from her elopement with Wickham which would have destroyed her own reputation and severely injured her sisters’ future prospects, and continues just as “untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy, and fearless” as ever.
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, in particular, makes it one of its main projects to rehabilitate Lydia both with viewers and with her exasperated sister Lizzie. (And, let it be said, it succeeded, at least with me: Lydia is my favorite character in LBD, although it pains me to say so because I love them alllllll.) For the most part she displays that same noisy, unabashed character, although with a strain of vulnerability that Austen’s Lydia never shows… right up until the Wickham debacle, which in this version takes the form of a sex tape that Wickham intends to sell online for cash. LBD Lydia collapses like a house of cards.
Now of course this is an extremely understandable reaction, and given that aforementioned streak of vulnerability it follows naturally from Lydia’s character in the adaptation. But the adaptation would have been closer to the original if Lydia had yelled, “Woo hoo! If this sex tape goes well, I’m going to start a career as a camgirl, and then I’ll be financially independent LONG before Jane and Lizzie move out of the house!”
…actually that would be a fantastic adaptation choice, but it would definitely have alienated a lot of viewers (probably including my 2013 self) and therefore undermined LBD’s “reconcile the sisters” project.
Jane Austen hasn’t any intention of reconciling Lydia with her despairing elder sisters. She has no more sentimental investment in sisterhood than she has in marriage, or friendship, or parent-child relationships, or indeed any other human relationship that you can name. None of these relationships are either good or bad by nature: they are good or bad entirely as the individuals within them make them so. And from that point of view, there's no reason for Jane and Elizabeth to try to reconcile with Lydia: she is what she is and they are what they are, and the mere fact that they are sisters will not make them mix.
Of course in some cases, I mean that my opinion has come full circle. In high school, I shared Elizabeth’s horror when her friend Charlotte agreed to marry that rat Mr. Collins. Later on, I grew more sympathetic to Charlotte: surely marrying Collins would be better than being a spinster in Regency England! (My recollection is that the 2005 adaptation makes this point with particular force.)
Rereading it now, it occurred to me that Jane Austen, Regency Spinster, probably has a better idea than I do what fates would be worse than being a Regency spinster, and she is absolutely right that being married to Mr. Collins would be on the list, at least for sensible, level-headed Charlotte Lucas. Moralistic Mary Bennet and Mr. Collins might have been well-suited, although they would have encouraged each other’s worst tendencies and become utterly unbearable to everyone else. Compare their reactions to Lydia’s elopement: Mary reflects piously how easily a woman’s precious reputation can be stained, while Mr. Collins writes to the Bennets to state that he’s shocked, shocked that they received Lydia at their house after the way she behaved! A match made in heaven. Pity Mr. Collins didn’t think of it.
Speaking of Lydia. Modern adaptations often seem troubled by Austen’s unsparing portrayal: she is gleefully unrepentant when she returns from her elopement with Wickham which would have destroyed her own reputation and severely injured her sisters’ future prospects, and continues just as “untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy, and fearless” as ever.
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, in particular, makes it one of its main projects to rehabilitate Lydia both with viewers and with her exasperated sister Lizzie. (And, let it be said, it succeeded, at least with me: Lydia is my favorite character in LBD, although it pains me to say so because I love them alllllll.) For the most part she displays that same noisy, unabashed character, although with a strain of vulnerability that Austen’s Lydia never shows… right up until the Wickham debacle, which in this version takes the form of a sex tape that Wickham intends to sell online for cash. LBD Lydia collapses like a house of cards.
Now of course this is an extremely understandable reaction, and given that aforementioned streak of vulnerability it follows naturally from Lydia’s character in the adaptation. But the adaptation would have been closer to the original if Lydia had yelled, “Woo hoo! If this sex tape goes well, I’m going to start a career as a camgirl, and then I’ll be financially independent LONG before Jane and Lizzie move out of the house!”
…actually that would be a fantastic adaptation choice, but it would definitely have alienated a lot of viewers (probably including my 2013 self) and therefore undermined LBD’s “reconcile the sisters” project.
Jane Austen hasn’t any intention of reconciling Lydia with her despairing elder sisters. She has no more sentimental investment in sisterhood than she has in marriage, or friendship, or parent-child relationships, or indeed any other human relationship that you can name. None of these relationships are either good or bad by nature: they are good or bad entirely as the individuals within them make them so. And from that point of view, there's no reason for Jane and Elizabeth to try to reconcile with Lydia: she is what she is and they are what they are, and the mere fact that they are sisters will not make them mix.
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Date: 2022-10-01 07:29 pm (UTC)I haven't seen The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, but as a person who has read Pride and Prejudice, I resent not being able to see that.
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Date: 2022-10-01 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-02 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-02 02:22 pm (UTC)She quits doing tapes and does livestreams so Darcy can't stop her. Jane and Elizabeth facepalm.
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Date: 2022-10-03 02:54 pm (UTC)MY
GOD
SHE REALLY WOULD
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Date: 2022-10-01 08:13 pm (UTC)I like your camgirl plot! Why would your 2013 self have been alienated by it?
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Date: 2022-10-01 08:23 pm (UTC)There isn't a full-blown family estrangement, but it's clear that Elizabeth and Jane don't intend to keep in close touch with the Wickhams (partly because Wickham once almost eloped with Elizabeth's new husband's younger sister).
Perhaps I am unfair to my 2013 self, but I think that I (and, in fairness, many other viewers, both then and today) would have gone "LYDIA WHAT ARE YOU THINKING. DO NOT MAKE HOMEMADE PORN YOUR CAREER. WHAT WOULD YOUR MOTHER SAY?"
And, on a less sex-work-specific note, there *is* something alienating in the book about the fact that Lydia is so obnoxiously self-centered and utterly unaware of the misery that she's caused her family. While she was missing they were so worried that they barely ate and slept, and then she waltzes back in bragging about how she's the first in the family to get married, and move over, Jane! Now that I'm a *married woman*, I take the pride of place that was previously yours as eldest daughter!
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Date: 2022-10-01 08:32 pm (UTC)She was very self-centered; I agree. And I think your 2013 self makes a good argument for not going in for a career in porn, though I guess I always feel conflicted, not about sex work (or at least, that's no where my thoughts are going right now), but on the self-fulfillment v. thinking about others question. I guess it's like so many other things and depends on what the person wants to do for self-fulfillment. Joining the Peace Corps despite daddy's wishes that you go into corporate law won't rile readers/viewers, but scamming widows out of their
family fortunesmeager savings despite your family's pleas that you Not Do That will.no subject
Date: 2022-10-01 09:10 pm (UTC)I don't think the full significance of Lydia running away with Wickham really hit me until I watched the TV show Harlots, about sex workers in Georgian England— I can't remember if there was a character with an actually similar background or someone pointed out in a meta post that this was Lydia's other option - sex work, in a brothel if she was lucky - if Wickham hadn't been paid off to marry her, but it was like, OH. That's why she would have been Lost To Her Family Forever and Ruined Her Sisters' Chances At A Marriage.
Interestingly, there are actually two modern P&P adaptions that have gone for "sex tape" as an interpretation of the Lydia/Wickham plot— Fire Island did it as well.
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Date: 2022-10-01 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-04 01:28 am (UTC)It's so at odds with what you might call the internet ideal of Cut Toxic People Out of Your Life - although I think it is an internet ideal partly because it's so much easier to practice on the internet... Very difficult to cut off Brad from accounting who is always talking about his bowling league for some reason. (Coworkers = the modern-day equivalent of Austen's neighbors? People who will inescapably have to interact with whether you want to or not...)
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Date: 2022-10-05 08:53 pm (UTC)But maybe you're right, because maybe Austen kind of does expect that people should put up with even truly toxic people--thinking of Wickham, who so does not get the comeuppance he deserves (and is not cut out of people's lives).
Also I think you're right that coworkers are a good equivalent of Austen-period neighbors: people who you are going to be in contact with, willy-nilly, who you just have to deal with.
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Date: 2022-10-05 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-01 10:44 pm (UTC)Though Darcy could never receive him[Wickham] at Pemberley, yet, for Elizabeth’s sake, he assisted him further in his profession. Lydia was occasionally a visitor there, when her husband was gone to enjoy himself in London or Bath; and with the Bingleys they both of them frequently staid so long, that even Bingley’s good humour was overcome, and he proceeded so far as to talk of giving them a hint to be gone.
I think there's some amount of Jane and Lizzie still putting up with Lydia for the sake of family, even though they'd rather not. Sigh.
(I love LBD, because sister stories are my jam, but the Lydia there is a different character.)
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Date: 2022-10-02 12:33 am (UTC)Lydia's letter is one of those devastating indictments Austen loves to put in characters' own mouths, too. She's so great.
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Date: 2022-10-04 01:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-02 12:29 am (UTC)The letter was to this effect:
“My dear Lizzy,
“I wish you joy. If you love Mr. Darcy half as well as I do my dear Wickham, you must be very happy. It is a great comfort to have you so rich, and when you have nothing else to do, I hope you will think of us. I am sure Wickham would like a place at court very much, and I do not think we shall have quite money enough to live upon without some help. Any place would do, of about three or four hundred a year; but however, do not speak to Mr. Darcy about it, if you had rather not.
“Yours, etc.”
As it happened that Elizabeth had much rather not, she endeavoured in her answer to put an end to every entreaty and expectation of the kind. Such relief, however, as it was in her power to afford, by the practice of what might be called economy in her own private expences, she frequently sent them. It had always been evident to her that such an income as theirs, under the direction of two persons so extravagant in their wants, and heedless of the future, must be very insufficient to their support; and whenever they changed their quarters, either Jane or herself were sure of being applied to for some little assistance towards discharging their bills. Their manner of living, even when the restoration of peace dismissed them to a home, was unsettled in the extreme. They were always moving from place to place in quest of a cheap situation, and always spending more than they ought. His affection for her soon sunk into indifference; hers lasted a little longer; and in spite of her youth and her manners, she retained all the claims to reputation which her marriage had given her.
Though Darcy could never receive him at Pemberley, yet, for Elizabeth’s sake, he assisted him further in his profession. Lydia was occasionally a visitor there, when her husband was gone to enjoy himself in London or Bath; and with the Bingleys they both of them frequently staid so long, that even Bingley’s good humour was overcome, and he proceeded so far as to talk of giving them a hint to be gone.
BINGLEY TALKS OF GIVING THEM A HINT TO BE GONE. That is pretty fucking far to push Bingley! But my impression from that is Elizabeth saves up pocket money or whatever to send Lydia, and Jane and Elizabeth are probably both soft touches when Lydia sends up "we're about to be run out of town for not paying the bills including the rent" flares. Only Lydia occasionally visits Elizabeth, but Jane and Bingley are total pushovers (and we love them for it).
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Date: 2022-10-02 12:51 am (UTC)*googles frantically*
Am I reading this right? Did Lydia straight up ask for a full-on income of about $20k in modern USD? I know that exchanging currency in two dimensions - different countries, vastly different eras - is a tricky business, but seriously.
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Date: 2022-10-02 01:00 am (UTC)She's probably asking for more than that! but I suck at math.
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Date: 2022-10-03 02:46 pm (UTC)I'm grateful to everyone for reminding me of how the story actually went!
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Date: 2022-10-02 12:22 am (UTC)Jane Austen hasn’t any intention of reconciling Lydia with her despairing elder sisters. She has no more sentimental investment in sisterhood than she has in marriage, or friendship, or parent-child relationships, or indeed any other human relationship that you can name.
Austen getting written off as "a romance writer" is REALLY something for the angels to weep over, altho I think it would probably have sardonically amused her, like most things.
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Date: 2022-10-02 01:00 pm (UTC)Some of Austen's books can be enjoyably read as romances, but Austen herself turns a jaundiced eye toward romance. Her books are littered with people led astray because they believed themselves "in love," only to realize that they were merely in lust and really find their partner unbearable! But TOO LATE, now they are bound together for life.
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Date: 2022-10-03 02:53 pm (UTC)Her books are littered with people led astray because they believed themselves "in love," only to realize that they were merely in lust and really find their partner unbearable! But TOO LATE, now they are bound together for life.
Did you mean: Mr and Mrs Bennet
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Date: 2022-10-04 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-02 08:39 am (UTC)LOL, that is, indeed, accurate modern Lydia. XD
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Date: 2022-10-02 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-02 12:00 pm (UTC)Both the 1995 and 2005 adaptations make the point that Charlotte is making a pragmatic choice but in very different ways. In 1995 she carefully points out to Lizzie that he keeps to his part of the house and she to hers, and with a bit of careful management they don't even have to interact! Whereas in 2005 it's much more dramatic "I'm 27 and I have no prospects and I'm scared!" declaration. I do find Mr Collins more odious as I get older (god, he would have a FIELD day mansplaining things on Reddit) but Charlotte has a point. Moving out of home is SO nice.
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Date: 2022-10-02 12:56 pm (UTC)Yes, I can see why the temptation to move away from home got the better of Charlotte! I still think she may ultimately regret it, but it is always possible that he will die young after giving her the exact number of children she wants, including a boy who will inherit Netherfield Hall so she'll always have a home...
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Date: 2022-10-03 02:57 pm (UTC)Of course he could always leave an odious will, a la Mr Casaubon and Dorothea.
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Date: 2022-10-04 01:33 am (UTC)Oh, dear. "This doesn't sound quite right," I mused, and then cheerily posted anyway, as if I could not have looked it up in ten seconds on Wikipedia.
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Date: 2022-10-05 08:07 am (UTC)I can totally see this happening. I mean, I love LBD, but this would have been A TWIST. A faithful interpretation of the book character, but still A TWIST to the modern audience's mind.
One thing I really liked about the 1995 adaptation is how well Lydia's actress did. Lydia as a character isn't stuck up or putting on airs, she REALLY IS just that unabashed and unthinking of others. (I know I hated Lydia in the stilted 1980 adaptation, and I really can't remember the 2005 one, because I didn't like much about it.)
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