Pride

Included in my '100 book bucket list' poster is Pride and Prejudice. In fact, it seems to turn up pretty near the top of most of the '100 best book' lists, wherever you look. I doubt whether this is entirely Colin Firth's fault (although you can't help but wonder with some of the books on these types of lists whether they get a pretty spectacular boost from a solid film or TV tie in), and so I thought it was about time to give it a go.

To be clear, I've only just started, and am only a few chapters in. Fairly short chapters they are too - I thought that brief chapters was a Patterson-esque new invention for the modern page turner, but Austen packs 61 into P&P. Anyway, in the first five we've discovered that Bingley has moved in to Netherfield, and that this has excited the interests of the Bennet family who live nearby - first and foremost the interest of Mrs Bennet who has five daughters in need of a husband (Jane, Lizzy, Mary, Kitty & Lydia - I think - hard to keep track at this early stage). Sounds like Bingley is a decent enough chap, and has caught the eye of the eldest, Jane, who he danced with twice (golly!) at their first meeting. At the same event, we also meet Darcy for the first time, and he doesn't come across well at all. Whilst he is said to be a 'fine, tall person' with 'handsome features', he rather rapidly gets a comeuppance, and he is only 'looked at with great admiration for half the evening' until 'he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased, and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding , disagreeable countenance'.

The other striking thing, whether of the time, or of critical importance to young ladies seeking a partner, or whether for Austen herself, is that one of the first things we are told about both Bingley and Darcy is how much money they have got. In chapter 1, on finding out someone is moving to Netherfield, Mrs Bennet says it is a 'young man of large fortune', and no sooner have we found out that his name is Bingley and he is single, we are told 'four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!'. Similarly in chapter 3, three lines after seeing Darcy's name for the very first time, we discover that he has 'ten thousand a year'. Quite how this gets into circulation so quickly is a bit of a mystery, but maybe it was common at the time. Just for the record, and because it's hard to reckon with, I went to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, and £10,000 per year in 1812 (when P&P is set) is the same as just over £700,000 now. So, Darcy was a wealthy man indeed. I wonder where all that money came from? (Inheritance, empire, industrial revolution ...).

Anyway, more to follow ...