by Diane Morris | Dec 10, 2015 | Anne de Bourgh, Jane Austen, Marriage, Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice
Have you ever wondered about arranged marriages? It must be awkward to build a life with someone you barely know or don’t like. It must be trying to submit to duty, especially if your heart lies elsewhere. In Jane Austen’s day arranged marriages were still common,...
by Diane Morris | Nov 5, 2015 | Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice, Regency Gentleman
A Regency era gentleman was a man who knew his place in the world. He guarded his reputation; dressed elegantly; and treated lords, servants, and lowly commoners with great civility.1 By these criteria, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pride and Prejudice fame was every bit a...
by Diane Morris | Oct 22, 2015 | Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Regency Gentleman
What did Jane Austen mean when she said that a gentleman had good breeding? For example, in Pride and Prejudice Jane Bennet tells her sister Elizabeth that in Mr. Bingley she never saw “so much ease, with such perfect good breeding.”1 In Persuasion Sir Walter Elliot...
by Diane Morris | Sep 24, 2015 | Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice
My previous post addressed the issue of why Mr. Darcy—the much loved suitor in Pride and Prejudice—is a gentleman but not a lord. While working on that post I began to wonder: “What exactly is a gentleman?” As it happens I have a book here in my office that describes...
by Diane Morris | Sep 10, 2015 | Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice
The most frequently asked question that brings visitors to my blog is this: Why isn’t Mr. Darcy a Lord? In Jane Austen’s popular novel Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy is a gentleman and a Derbyshire landowner with a beautiful estate (Pemberley). He has a handsome...
by Diane Morris | Jan 8, 2015 | Childbirth, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Many women today can choose when to become pregnant, thanks to the availability of safe and reliable contraceptives.1 It wasn’t always so. During the Regency period women were often pregnant every few years, beginning within the first or second year of marriage and...
