I am continually going through Gutenberg’s version of Pride and Prejudice for the fic and the illustrations
Look at these!
Mr. Collins “extending an olive branch” to Mr. Bennet:
Lizzie trying to make up her mind about Darcy vs Whickham after reading Darcy’s letter:
Lydia’s dreams of staying at the camp in Brighton:
Darcy, Caroline and Louisa attempting to drag Bringley away from Jane, and three cupids trying to prevent them:
Lady Catherine going full Lady Catherine:
They’re by Hugh Thomson, please go look at the others. There’s a list with page links at the start
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Fanart of the really good tree from Pride and Prejudice (2005)
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Henry Tilney, excellent at reading social interactions to the point of being almost jaded and frequently sarcastic about people, meets a girl without a manipulative bone in her body and a near-dangerous obliviousness to dishonesty and is so fucking soft for her immediately. The absolute wonder of finding someone who for once isn’t trying to get a leg up on you or use you for a social prop while you can see straight through them, but just actually and genuinely enjoys your company, and she’s funny and she likes the same novels you do and she actually cares about being your friend. This is Northanger Abbey propaganda everyone go read my favorite Austen novel.
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there's just something about two bodies conforming to each other as much as physically possible while kissing that's just-
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"Did Jane[Austen] ever have lesbian sex? Here the stakes would have been much lower. Yes, it was frowned on by society. But this was an age where women very often shared beds, and Jane herself frequently records sleeping with a female friend. People were much less worried about lesbian sex in general. It wasn’t pursued in the law courts, or policed against by the matrons of polite society. This was not least because many of them didn’t quite believe that it was even possible. So that door of possibility may remain ajar. But only by the very tiniest crack, and only in the absence of evidence either way."
-Lucy Worsley, Jane Austen at Home: A Biography (2017)
We really appreciated the way that Worsley leaves the door open, as she says, to the possibility of Jane Austen being queer, despite no specific evidence of her love for or relationships with women. A refreshing break from heteronormativity! Also a reminder that while "proving" queerness in history is often difficult, disproving it is just as hard!
Learn more about queerness and Jane
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I was rereading the correspondence included in Pride and Prejudice, and I'm always amused by the "Yours, etc." used at the end of several of the letters simply because it was too much work to write it out the sign off in full. But what really gets me is that Mr. Collins letter to Mr. Bennet at Lydia's elopement is the only one to end with:
"I am, dear sir," etc., etc.
Like Austen is physically tapping you on the shoulder, going: "look, I'm not going to write out any of these commonplace civilities, but I do need you to know that Mr. Collins uses much much more of them"
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btw I’m obsessed with the way the 1995 persuasion handles Anne and Wentworth’s proposal scene because the whole circus randomly goes by and yet it’s like they’re the only two people in the world. they create for each other an oasis of peace and quiet and understanding. they are each other’s safe harbor.
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Lydia Bennet hours again! Lydia Bennet sets the stakes. Whatever happens to Lydia is the worst thing that can happen to a woman who misbehaves, followed by the best rescue she can expect from a man possessed of influence and capital. Lydia Bennet spells out the stick and carrot of why Elizabeth needs a husband. The cruelty visited on Lydia by the other characters and by the narrative serves to illustrate the material dangers of being a woman in this time and place and is what gives the story teeth. Reimaginings of Pride and Prejudice that soften Lydia's fate and soften Elizabeth's condemnation of her are, intentionally or not, striving to create a story with no stakes, a completely safe romance that need not cause the reader or viewer any anxiety. Not only do you sit down in front of a romcom knowing that the girl will get the boy in the end; you know that nothing really bad can happen to anybody in the story, and there is nothing that the characters really stand to lose other than a momentary emotional disequilibrium. This is a perfectly fine thing for a story to do, but it has little to do with Austen.
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One must picture Darcy lying on the couch with a book over his face as he describes Elizabeth’s eyes to a very patient Georgiana for the fifteenth time
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