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I like that Charlotte Brontë was basically telling a soapy saga about how the world is a hard and complicated place and sometimes Shit Happens, and Jane Austen is just like, “I’ve met the worst and simultaneously most boring people you can imagine. Hunker down, let me tell you all about them.”

To be clear, I love both these ways of moving across a story.

I’ve barely touched on Jane and Bingley because they’re just two hot people who straightforwardly like each other, and I’m sure these crazy kids will be fine. It turns out, though, that firmly believe that Mrs Bennet should have a gun.

Ah so Bingley and Darcy have sort of a red oni/blue oni dynamic going on

Oh I fully blew past Mrs Bennet conspiring to get her daughter a touch of the cold to stay at Netherfield with Bingley lmao what a lady. No ruth at all.

Oh no Elizabeth got worried for her sick sister and called her mother who brought basically the rest of the family. Oh no. Oh nooooo.

MOMMM oh my GOD you’re EMBARRASSING ME.

And I still think Mrs Bennet should have a gun.

I wonder what the conversation was like at home when Mrs Bennet got Elizabeth’s note about sick Jane. Mrs B: Jane is unwell! We must go to her! Mr B: Yes, certainly. Mrs B: And I’m bringing all the girls. Mr B: Oh, this is a You project.

My eyes just glaze over every mention of Mr Hurst. Is he important? I just don’t think my brain is meant to comprehend him.

I also think Charlotte should have a gun.

I’m at the part where they’re taking a walk in the woods, and I think Darcy and Elizabeth are flirting, and also Caroline is there doing that thing where she’s trying to charm Darcy by making herself sound a little unworldly and thereby super impressed by him, and it is awkward.

Elizabeth leaves the conversation because someone else joins them, and “the path is too small for all of us,” and I’m having trouble picturing that kind of path. But it occurs to me she’s just grabbing a perfunctory nonsense excuse to leave a social situation, which just makes me root for her.

*someone rude joins the chat* Elizabeth: WELL, I have to go suddenly because uh the sun is at a weird angle that makes our shadows a size that displeases me, so see you later, nice chatting, good-bye. I love her.

I went from “Wow Elizabeth Bennet kinda feels like a manic pick-me dream girl” to “I will take a blunt object to anybody’s car lights if they say a bad word about Liz.” Jane Austen. Is so good.

I think all other protagonists in her mold are just daughters of the manic pixies we couldn’t dream. Elizabeth holds up against any contemporary romance protagonist!

By the beginning of the 12th chapter, Darcy has decided that Elizabeth has stayed too long because he has developed a crush, and he’s noticed that Caroline has been flirtier, so he has feelings that are too big in all directions, and it has to stop. Deeply relatable. I’ve turned around on him too!??

Ah, we’ve met Mr Collins, and he appears to be some sort of, like… fuddy duddy pickup artist type? He talks about women kinda like they’re other people’s pets. It’s weird.

We’re also spending time with a soldier called Wickham, who is described as a hot man with ample charisma. It almost seems mean to have him share chapter space with Collins, which suggests I’m gonna eventually dislike Wickham even more than Collins, if the pattern of this book continues.

Jane Austen, always deftly getting me to root for characters I dislike by introducing even more highly unlikable characters.

OH he’ll *settle* for Elizabeth if Jane is unavailable lmao I hate this odious little loser.

oh my god trung pride and prejudice is one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITES i am living for this thread

is it bad that the only versions I can see in my head are the Lizzie Bennet Diaries cast?

So by the time we meet Wickham, the experience is like, “Wow, finally, a hot man,” and it’s kind of incredible the whiplash we experience. And Elizabeth seems to take a liking to him, BUT—

Wickham seems to have some hot goss (or at least some prickly opinions) about Darcy, which makes Elizabeth’s ears perk up, and I think we’re supposed to be unsure whether it’s because she’s interested in Wickham himself or if she’s very interested to hear about Darcy! Jane Austen is so good at this.