Jane Austen discussion

(Lydia has eloped with Wickham and they leave for Longbourne. Mr.Gardiner goes to London to assist Mr.Bennets search. A letter arrives informing them Wickham's debts are to be settled and he and Lydia are to be married.)

haha ;)

One thing about the elopement is I can't believe Kitty kept it to herself.She doesn't seem like the kind of person able to keep any secret.

Lydia is so lucky her sister's suitor was such a great man and bought her marriage.I don't think she will ever understand how close she came to ruin and being throw off and becoming a prostitute.

I think it just punishment that Wickham and Lydia are stuck with each other.They deserve each other.

I was surprised as well, but then i suppose her sister swore her to secrecy - i think this would have taught Kitty a lesson to not keep such a serious matter in the furute.

She will never understand her desparate her case was! darcy really was her saviour!

I agree - they do deserve each other... they will not be happy in marriage. How long do you give them?

To be happy in marriage?I give Lydia and Wickham a few hours for him anyway and for her a few months then the novelity of being married will wear off.I have no doubt that he will cheat on her.She will always be an outrageous flirt with everyone.God forbid they ever have children.We all know that Lydia's sisters would be taking care of them.

Well not to long they were asking Lizzie for money, so we see Wickham never changed his gaming habit and Lydia still needs her sisters.

I agree with you Nicole. I give Wickham minutes and Lydia weeks... WIckham would cheat! No doubt! He hasn't changed... and exactly Marren, Lydia has already been getting money from her older sisters!!

I don't doubt that Lydia would cheat either. In one of the letters after she's married she's still going on about how many officers there were and how she flirted with them *eye roll* Some people never change.

I was reading some essays on P&P and one of them mentioned how the militia's regimentals were quite tight-fitting. No wonder Lydia thought a man looked nothing without regimentals.

And *shudder* I hate to think of them having kids.

Lydia would cheat as well - especially when he realises Wickhams heart was cold.

And it is so shallow that she thinks they are nothing without regimentals, IMO

This may just be my wishful thinking, but did anyone else wonder if Darcy had a reason for going to see Lizzy the next morning (when she has just seen Jane's letters about Lydia) and it just gets forgotten because of what happened? I know people paid morning calls as thank you after meetings sometime, but she was engaged to go to dinner very soon... ?
Maybe it's just me, I always wondered why Darcy really went that morning...

Yeah, I always thought he was visiting to give her some info about the dinner or something.

I thought he was going to talk to her and see if he had a chance with her and using talking about dinner for an excuse.

I am with you Nicole! I thought he thought the meeting the previous day went really well and have him hope, and so the excuse of dinner have him a chance to visit her :)

i hate the part where shes all happy with herself for catching wickham and tells her sisters they should all go to Brighton to get husbands

Yes!! How does she not see at all how what she has done is wrong?! Stupid girl!

Oh yes Caro, the nerve of the chit! I am thinking "If only you know who he really is Lydia, if only."

ikr! and then telling her sisters off like that sakes!

Marren wrote: "Oh yes Caro, the nerve of the chit! I am thinking "If only you know who he really is Lydia, if only.""

Sadly I don't think it would have mattered to Lydia who he really was as long as he wore a red coat and was handsome and charming.

Very sad indeed. I know Lydia is silly but I would to believe if she knew who he was, she would have stayed away from him. Really hope.

I'm not sure what she would have done. Lizzy thinks it is partly her fault for not being open with her sisters about it (but could she really have said anything given that it was personal to Darcy) but there is a little part of me that thinks she wouldn't care about and think he genuinely liked her (against his reputation) and also, maybe she would find it more attractive as he is a rake... Who knows...

or lydia was just one of those shallow brats you know who think the only thing worth getting in life is a handsome charming husband. superficiality..

Well yeah...
(Btw, how's Northanger going?)

its taking me foreverr lol but im at the part where she meets mr. thorpe and her brother hearts isabella? yeah im not very far in..

Are you enjoying it? Isn't Tilney funny! Yeah, he brother loves Isabella :)

I think Darcy went to Lambton with some excuse just to see Lizzy, he knew he had only a few days to make a good impression, even if things had gone smoothly.

Generally there is nothing I would change about this book but I must confess that I would have liked to have seen Darcy offer a little more comfort to her during that scene. Of course it all adds to her doubt of his feelings that’s so important to the following chapters, but don’t you wish there was just a little bit more? A few words, a brief closeness… nothing out of keeping with the story.

As I’ve been reading I can’t help picturing (and hearing) the actors from my favourite adaptation (BBC 1980), especially as they did actually say a lot of the narrative in that version, as well as the dialogue from the book. The scene where Lizzy breaks the news about Lydia is the one part of that adaptation that I would say was completely wrong and I don’t understand the reason for it. Once I’m done with reading this I’m going to go through the other adaptations so that I can compare them!

Louise wrote: "I think Darcy went to Lambton with some excuse just to see Lizzy, he knew he had only a few days to make a good impression, even if things had gone smoothly.

I agree with you Louise. He could not help himself.

Louise wrote: "I think Darcy went to Lambton with some excuse just to see Lizzy, he knew he had only a few days to make a good impression, even if things had gone smoothly.

Generally there is nothing I would cha..."

I agree. He just had to see her again!

I think I agree as well. It would have been nice to see a little more. But with the rules of propriety and how Austen stuck with them in her novels I guess this was hard. I love in the 1995 scene at this point when Darcy takes her hand( its like an automatic gesture as well!) So, something along those lines, subtle, would have been nice.

The narrative in that version was so accurate actually! But, as you say, that scene was done wrong. I don't think it captured the feeling correctly...
And comparing the adaptations sounds like an idea! I would love to hear your thoughts! And I would post mine as well. (about 1940 1980 1995 and 2005) Perhaps I will start another thread in this 'Celebrating Pride and Prejudice' folder about the adaptations. Or feel free to Louise if you get there before me. :)

That sounds like a good idea, and going back to what we mentioned some time back, if anyone wants to attempt a simultaneous watching on an IM chat client...

That sounds like fun! I would love to although Im not sure when as yet, but I am definitley up for it! Which IM?

Good question... any preferences?

I'm in to watching and comparing the P&P movies.I have only seen 1995 and 2005.

I think we should do a read along with all JA other novels like we are doing with P&P.What do you all think?

Nicole

I think we should do a read along with all JA other novels like we are doing with P&P.What do you all think?"

Well I am doing it for another group and watching all the adaptations (well those we can find)

Should be a good thing :)

I'm not sure the best way of doing that... A thread wouldn't work cause have to keep refreshing so IM would have to be the way I think... Only one I know is MSN...

Nicole that's a great idea! We should work through them all and I can set them up in the same format as I did P&P if that suited everyone and worked ok?
Which novel would we do next and when... ?
Take a vote each time or in order of publication from now?

Glad your in Marren.
And the 2005 and 1995 Would be the best ones as most people have seen those and then 2005 would be the best as 2 hours is more realise than 5! Have to work out all the time zones as well but it would be so worth it!

So I'm going to make this complicated... MSN is going to be switched off at some point because Microsoft have bought Skype. Some of my friends want to switch to Skype while others have picked Google Chat... so I downloaded Trillian because it lets you have all of them open in one client, so far so good.

When you use Trillian it asks you to say whether the account is Skype or MSN, it handles either... it can't yet handle a converted account however! What that actually means is that I don't mind what we use but if you're using Skype with a converted MSN account I need to know so that I can add it as MSN and not Skype... wow that was long winded, sorry.

so.... shall we use skype? (Meaning I need to sort out my account/start a new one ;) can't remeber what email/password I used ;)

Soph wrote: "I'm not sure the best way of doing that... A thread wouldn't work cause have to keep refreshing so IM would have to be the way I think... Only one I know is MSN...

Nicole that's a great idea! We ..."

I think we should take a vote each time.Seeing as that they are all diff lengths.It would be better to vote in case some months people don't have time to read books as long as Mansfield Park and Emma.

Cool!! I will create a new thread for where we can vote for the book and when :)