What were Elizabeth Bennett’s prospects in the real world?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hilarious retelling of DCUM P&P!

There is actually a modern-day P&P written by Curtis Sittenfeld (author of Prep)

- Bennett family lives in Cincinnati, Darcy comes from Old Money in San Fran but he is also a surgeon
- Jane and Lizzie are employees in unremunerative professions, Mary is a perpetual student, Kitty and Lydia are party girls obsessed with their bodies
- Mr. Collins is a tech wiz kid
- I won’t spoil about Wickham in case someone decides to read it, but an interesting character for sure

I thought she nailed it. Mrs. Bennet spends all her time ordering tchochkes from Horchow and hanging out at the country club with the ladies and Mr. Bennet reads the WSJ while their "investments" dwindle. Mary has like four Master's degrees. Jane is a yoga instructor and Lizzie is a "Sex and the City" columnist. Darcy and Wickham were frat brothers, which is how Darcy knows that he is bad news.

I need to read this! I really enjoyed Prep

[Anonymous]

I read a P&P set in Chicago / Cincinnati I think. It was pretty good. Probably all of you know what book I’m talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hilarious retelling of DCUM P&P!

There is actually a modern-day P&P written by Curtis Sittenfeld (author of Prep)

- Bennett family lives in Cincinnati, Darcy comes from Old Money in San Fran but he is also a surgeon
- Jane and Lizzie are employees in unremunerative professions, Mary is a perpetual student, Kitty and Lydia are party girls obsessed with their bodies
- Mr. Collins is a tech wiz kid
- I won’t spoil about Wickham in case someone decides to read it, but an interesting character for sure

I thought she nailed it. Mrs. Bennet spends all her time ordering tchochkes from Horchow and hanging out at the country club with the ladies and Mr. Bennet reads the WSJ while their "investments" dwindle. Mary has like four Master's degrees. Jane is a yoga instructor and Lizzie is a "Sex and the City" columnist. Darcy and Wickham were frat brothers, which is how Darcy knows that he is bad news.

I need to read this! I really enjoyed Prep

The other thing I love about this book is that (I don't think this is a spoiler) Caroline is trying to get Bingley cast on a Bachelor-type TV show, obvs so she will be in that reality TV orbit. Totally. Bingley is exactly the kind of guy you can see being on the Bachelor -- handsome, good at socializing, easily manipulated.

[Anonymous]

Col Fitzwilliam is the second son of an earl; so close yet so far. He likes Lizzie but they both acknowledge that a second son can't afford to marry for love. I don't think they stated whether the first son was married or not. With death in childbirth and childhood mortality still pretty high, there was always a chance that Fitzwilliam could inherit, but he doesn't want to give up his pampered life and take a chance on someone with almost no dowry just because she's pretty and charming.

Similarly, Emma spoils the prospects of her nephew when she swoops in and marries Mr Knightley; John Knightley's son was poised to inherit Donwell if George didn't marry. Not sure what was supposed to happen to Hartfield on the death of Mr. Woodhouse since he had only the two daughters, but clearly they were both set for life regardless.

[Anonymous]

At the close of Emma there was some discussion about how some people in the community gossiped that the George Knightlys should stick to Dowell and leave Hartfield to the John Knightlys .

Thing is, there seemed to have been plenty of money floating around, and gentle status could be secured by the purchase of an estate, too.

Plus John Knightly seemed to like his profession and his London life.

[Anonymous]

I think at one point, Jane Austen confided that Kitty married a parson and Mary married someone who worked for Uncle Phillips.

So those might have been realistic options for Elizabeth, or maybe a business contact of Mr. Gardiner.

I’m not sure Elizabeth would have made a proper parson’s wife. She was too mischievous. And clergymen, as portrayed in Austen’s novels, are either somewhat dull: Edmund Bertram, Edward Farrars, or else insincere: Mr. Collins, Mr. Elton. Not to Lizzie’s liking.

Sometimes I wonder whether Elizabeth would have been better off marrying a rising industrialist in Mr. Gardiner’s circle...but at heart, she was a country girl who loved to go walking. (And I wonder how/whether she would have reacted to industrial working conditions. I guess Austen was not Dickens, so she never wrote that story.)

Perhaps in real life, Elizabeth would have found happiness with an appropriate member of the minor country gentry, like Charles Musgrove. But someone who liked to read, as well as shoot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hilarious retelling of DCUM P&P!

There is actually a modern-day P&P written by Curtis Sittenfeld (author of Prep)

- Bennett family lives in Cincinnati, Darcy comes from Old Money in San Fran but he is also a surgeon
- Jane and Lizzie are employees in unremunerative professions, Mary is a perpetual student, Kitty and Lydia are party girls obsessed with their bodies
- Mr. Collins is a tech wiz kid
- I won’t spoil about Wickham in case someone decides to read it, but an interesting character for sure

Thanks for the rec. Read it this weekend. So fun!