I feel like the conversation below sums up how Jane Austen’s writing is both so dense and so amusing and so enthralling.
Jane Bennet : My dearest sister, now be serious. I want to talk very seriously. Let me know every thing that I am to know, without delay. Will you tell me how long you have loved him?
Elizabeth Bennet : It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.
If you dont know Elizabeth Bennett - this makes her sound like a fortune hunter. Which is instantly relatable on the surface.
If you read the book you know Elizabeth is very much NOT impressed with money, and is almost a snob in how she treats rich people. So here she is ACTUALLY admitting she is wrong. She misjudged Mr Darcy, and in saying she is wrong is actually poking QUITE A BIT of fun and derision at herself. She is exposing this to her favorite sister whose opinion she holds very high - so you also get the understanding and the deepness of connection between Jane and Elizabeth - that Jane feels so comfortable being so vulnerable, honest, and silly to her sislter.
Additionally, after you have read it many, many times and pick up other things from the book and sources, Elizabeth is also saying “Mr Darcy is a good landlord to his tenants and he takes good care of the people and lands that belong to him and he is responsible for.” This is in counterpoint to her Father. She loves her Father very very much, but through some fault of his own he will not be providing for his daughters. He could do more to secure them good marriages and watch out for their reputations, but he throws his hands up and walks away instead.
P&P is NOT EVEN my favorite Austen - but some of the lines in Austen are so dense with meaning and the deep interconnectness of these families. It is truly rereadable and reinterpretable every time you read it.
Tl;dr Jane Austen is a genius of dense thoughtful reading.
I feel like the conversation below sums up how Jane Austen’s writing is both so dense and so amusing and so enthralling.
If you dont know Elizabeth Bennett - this makes her sound like a fortune hunter. Which is instantly relatable on the surface.
If you read the book you know Elizabeth is very much NOT impressed with money, and is almost a snob in how she treats rich people. So here she is ACTUALLY admitting she is wrong. She misjudged Mr Darcy, and in saying she is wrong is actually poking QUITE A BIT of fun and derision at herself. She is exposing this to her favorite sister whose opinion she holds very high - so you also get the understanding and the deepness of connection between Jane and Elizabeth - that Jane feels so comfortable being so vulnerable, honest, and silly to her sislter.
Additionally, after you have read it many, many times and pick up other things from the book and sources, Elizabeth is also saying “Mr Darcy is a good landlord to his tenants and he takes good care of the people and lands that belong to him and he is responsible for.” This is in counterpoint to her Father. She loves her Father very very much, but through some fault of his own he will not be providing for his daughters. He could do more to secure them good marriages and watch out for their reputations, but he throws his hands up and walks away instead.
P&P is NOT EVEN my favorite Austen - but some of the lines in Austen are so dense with meaning and the deep interconnectness of these families. It is truly rereadable and reinterpretable every time you read it.
Tl;dr Jane Austen is a genius of dense thoughtful reading.