There's Something About Darcy Read online

  THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT DARCY

  Gabrielle Malcolm

  © Gabrielle Malcolm 2019

  Gabrielle Malcolm has asserted her rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

  First published in 2019 by Endeavour Quill.

  Endeavour Quill is an imprint of Endeavour Media Ltd.

  Images:

  Cover illustration of Mr Darcy by Laura Barrett at The Artworks Illustration Agency, 2019

  Image of Colin Firth/Darcy merchandise property of Mira Magdo

  CE Brock illustration, from Pride and Prejudice, 1895

  Hugh Thomson illustration, from Pride and Prejudice, 1894

  Caricature of Beau Brummel by Robert Dighton, 1805

  CE Brock illustration, from Pride and Prejudice, 1895

  FH Townsend illustration from Jane Eyre, 1848

  Image of Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff from 1939 production of Wuthering Heights, from the Lester Glassner collection, Samuel Goldwyn Pictures

  Image of Fred Terry as the Scarlet Pimpernel, 1905, http://www.collectorspost.com/

  Image of Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier from 1940 production of and Pride and Prejudice, MGM Studios

  Hugh Thomson illustration, from Pride and Prejudice, 1894

  Image of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy from 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice

  Image of Darcy bust at Chatsworth House property of Gabrielle Malcolm

  For my mother, Ann Curry

  CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION

  CHAPTER 1: “Mr what’s-his-name? That tall, proud man”

  CHAPTER 2: “What does Mr Darcy mean?” The hero in the novel

  CHAPTER 3: ‘The man of family pride’: Darcy’s descendants in the nineteenth century

  CHAPTER 4: Elegance, risk and revolution: Darcy’s descendants in the regency romance

  CHAPTER 5: The flames rise higher: danger, sex and regret with the twentieth-century hero

  CHAPTER 6: Darcy on screen: Colin Firth and beyond

  CHAPTER 7: ‘What if?’: the master of Pemberley and the mania of sequel and fan fiction

  CHAPTER 8: Expanding the boundaries: ‘hate sex’ and the ‘Darcy problem’

  CHAPTER 9: Unwavering, enduring: Darcy – a hero for all time

  FURTHER READING, VIEWING AND INSPIRATION

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  About the Author

  INTRODUCTION

  In the autumn of 1995, a quiet cultural revolution took place, first in the UK and then around the world. It was quiet because it mostly concerned the emotions generated from private reading habits. It was quiet because it arose from Sunday evening television viewing. And it was quiet because it was almost exclusively driven by the reading and viewing habits of women.

  Writer and journalist Helen Fielding was one of the first to pick up on this at the time. Through the lens of her column in The Independent newspaper, ‘The Diary of Bridget Jones’, she scrutinised the week-by-week run of a six-part BBC TV period drama series awaiting the moment the two leading characters would ‘get off’ with each other. Bridget Jones started life as a caricature of a thirty-something single woman steeped in self-absorption, self-criticism and self-scrutiny – from the number of calories consumed to the size of knickers required in any given social situation. She evolved over the weeks, months and subsequent years into a character that came to lead the vanguard in modern reinterpretations of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813).

  The trigger for this revolution in popular culture, and the object of Fielding’s scrutiny, was of course the broadcast of the new BBC TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which unexpectedly sent reverberations around the world that still echo today. It was the product of the dovetailing of a specific group of talents: the genius of Jane Austen, the inventiveness of scriptwriter Andrew Davies and the vision of television director Simon Langton, together with a sterling cast headed by Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth.

  One particular scene became etched on the popular consciousness: when Mr Darcy (played by Firth), strides across a field, a wet shirt clinging to his body. Awkward, yet utterly masculine, he strode right into the hearts and dreams of millions.

  The result was a television event that has had no serious rivals since, and the birth of an epoch of unprecedented Austen fandom, for the author and her hero. Austen is now unique amongst period novelists in that she occupies a place in contemporary twenty-first century fan culture that very few modern writers can rival. Austen’s creations, particularly Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, are as much a focus of today’s online fan culture as, for example, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter characters and the Star Wars or Dr Who universes.

  The idea for this book came to me when I was waiting at a bus stop in Bath. Next to me stood a young woman carrying an ‘I  Darcy’ tote bag. I tracked this item down to the Jane Austen Centre shop, just off Queen’s Square. That was my introduction to the notion that there was a demand for Austen and Darcy related things that went beyond the novels and their adaptations. When I heard that Chatsworth House in Derbyshire had to put away the bust of Matthew Macfadyen as Darcy (from the 2005 film version) because visitors kept kissing it, I decided that this urge ought to be investigated.

  The fascination with Darcy has grown into a mania, and this book will examine why that is. Darcy now appears in innumerable guises: in fist-fights on screen, slamming his Ferrari into gear in the pages of a romance novel, running a digital media company in San Francisco, as a vampire, a heart surgeon, a neurosurgeon, and even slaying zombies in films and graphic novels. He is especially favoured in the now classic trope of a man emerging – dripping wet – from a lake or pond, wet shirt clinging to his body. Even actors who have never played Darcy use this as a kind of shorthand for masculine gorgeousness. Benedict Cumberbatch, star of Sherlock for the BBC and Dr Strange in the Marvel Universe, appeared in a charity photoshoot in 2014 as a ‘sexy wet ’n’ wild’ tribute to Firth as Darcy.

  Time travel fantasies undertaken to meet Darcy, updated sequels to Pride and Prejudice, modern adaptations and even dragon-taming versions of Darcy (as in Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon, Longbourn: Dragon Entail, Netherfield: Rogue Dragon, a three-book series by Maria Grace, White Soup Press, 2016–2018) populate the thriving genre of Jane Austen fan fiction. This is probably one of the most telling and revealing aspects of Austen’s modern-day popularity – the huge, ever-increasing, concentrated output of fan fiction. These are stories – mostly circulated online, but many published in print through independent channels – that are based on Austen’s original narratives and characters. They explore alternative plotlines, are told from an individual character’s perspective or explore ‘what if?’ scenarios that test the much-loved characters in new and dramatic ways. The figure of Darcy dominates these alternative re-tellings of Pride and Prejudice, demonstrating how vivid, personal and meaningful are the relationships between readers and writers of Jane Austen fan fiction, the author and her creation.

  The Darcy we know today has a 200-year history behind him. And beyond that history are the influences that might have operated on Austen to create him. He has moved from being the secondary character to Elizabeth, her love interest, to influence later heroic creations. He is now an archetype that defines a whole strand of characters in fiction, drama, media and popular culture. These are identified by a single name – Darcy.

  So, what is it that Austen delivers for readers and viewers that turn them into such fans, and superfans, of her novels, her characters and of Darcy in particular? This book will search for some answers to this, and in doing so explore the origins of the character, the depiction of him in the novel and
the legacy of his influence.

  Colin Firth/Mr Darcy fan merchandise

  CHAPTER 1

  “Mr what’s-his-name? That tall, proud man”

  During the course of Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy makes so little impression on Kitty Bennet that when he appears at Longbourn in the closing chapters of the novel, she refers to him as ‘Mr What’s-his-name?’ He does not wear a military uniform, so what possible interest could he hold for her?

  To be fair to Kitty, there is nothing, throughout the span of the novel, for her to see. Elizabeth and Darcy’s romance, whilst the central focus of the novel, is after all a secret one, and most of the characters remain oblivious to it until the very end. However, we, the readers, have been privy to its steady development all along.

  Darcy is tall, proud, and of course – rich.

  ‘If I were as rich as Mr Darcy… I should not care how proud I was. I would keep a pack of fox-hounds, and drink a bottle of wine every day!’

  (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 5, Vol. 1)

  So announces a ‘young Lucas’, brother of Charlotte, on learning of Darcy’s immense wealth. A boy would certainly not have to worry if he had the life of a Darcy ahead of him.

  When he makes his first appearance in the local society of the novel, at the Meryton Assembly, Darcy’s background, his property and his attitude and manners immediately become the subject of much gossip. On entering this new society, the first impression he makes on the company is universal. He is rich and he is handsome, he is well-dressed and in the company of fashionable ladies, therefore he must be admired. However, the way in which he is initially appraised quickly deteriorates, and hits a low point when, within earshot of Elizabeth, he speaks his mind about her: “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me…”

  CE Brock illustration, 1895

  You would think that people would not give this awful, rude man the benefit of their attention. But Austen’s point is clear: they do, because he is handsome and wealthy and provides them with a rich seam of gossip to mine. By the dawn of the next day, and chapter, Darcy already fascinates them. After all, as Mr Bennet says to Elizabeth: “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”

  First Impressions

  Mr Darcy’s insult to Elizabeth does not turn out to be a mortal wound. The story in Pride and Prejudice is in a sense the tale of Darcy’s journey back: back to acceptance and approval in Elizabeth’s ‘fine eyes’ and back to the moment when he entered the Meryton Assembly and received everyone’s admiration on first impression.

  First Impressions was of course Austen’s initial choice of title for the novel. She grew and nurtured the characters, and the relationship of Elizabeth and Darcy, over some years. She began in 1796, when she was twenty-one and staying at Goodnestone Park in Kent, her brother Edward’s estate. She referred to the manuscript as First Impressions in a letter to her sister Cassandra, in 1799.

  So, the novel was with her, as part of her life, throughout the first decade of the nineteenth century. Revisions of the manuscript took place later, from 1811–1812, and it was published as Pride and Prejudice in 1813, by Thomas Egerton. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is a phrase lifted directly from Frances Burney’s novel Cecilia (1779); Burney was one of Austen’s key influences, with her novels of young women’s journeys into the world.

  But the story of the foundation of Pride and Prejudice began even earlier, during Austen’s childhood years at Steventon in Hampshire. This was George Austen’s parish and, as the daughter of the vicar, Jane had access to the parish register. It turns out that she enjoyed this access in a mischievous fashion and, probably in her teens, made fictional entries. As the BBC reported in March 2017, Austen listed a marriage between ‘Henry Frederic Howard Fitzwilliam of London’ and ‘Jane Austen of Steventon.’ Another ‘Jane Austen’ entry unites her with ‘Edmund Arthur William Mortimer of Liverpool.’

  It is charming and funny to witness this unfolding of the imagination in her early years. This mischievous act reinforces our understanding of the timeline of Pride and Prejudice and stimulates speculation about her influences and her invention.

  From Stage to Page

  Austen was a passionate scholar and historian, and an avid reader from a young age. As well as juvenile works of history and biography, she engaged in home ‘theatricals’ as a performer and a playwright. Her eldest brother, James, organised the Austen siblings in the barn at the Steventon rectory in productions of Richard Sheridan’s The Rivals (1775). Austen was involved from about the age of eight. With Sheridan’s work and the activity of performing, she could develop her satirical voice.

  The influence of Richard Sheridan (1751–1816) on Austen cannot be underestimated. He owned and managed the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and had a career in politics with the Whig Party. Sheridan’s satiric tone and the means by which he fashioned his comedy of manners for the stage can be detected in Pride and Prejudice and within the character of Darcy. Getting to know Austen’s novels means understanding the significance of such dramas, and the impact of theatricality on her work.

  In The Rivals, Sheridan created the character of Faulkland, the wittily-constructed figure of a tormented romantic hero. He is in love with the sensible and pragmatic Julia Melville, which is a case of opposites attracting. Julia resembles Charlotte Lucas in many ways, and she understands Faulkland’s high ideals and tolerates them as a product of the fashionable poetic view of love at the time.

  Faulkland is all seriousness and against frivolity. When he hears that Julia has attended evening parties without him, he is tormented by jealousy and anguished at the idea of her indulging in dances, specifically ‘jigs and reels’. He is particularly set against these because of the impulses they might release in people, being folkish and frivolous forms of movement. His response is hilarious in its hyperbole:

  “Hell and the devil!… She thrives in my absence! – Dancing!… I have been anxious, silent, pensive, sedentary – my days have been hours of care, my nights of watchfulness…”

  (The Rivals, Act 2, Scene 1)

  He dissects his concerns. He fears that the ‘lascivious movement of the jig’ will lead to ‘quivering warm-breathed sighs’ that fill the air so that ‘the atmosphere becomes electrical to love’. At this point Faulkland must exit, as he is ‘somewhat flurried’.

  In Chapter 6, Vol. 1 of Pride and Prejudice, a little drama unfolds in Sir William Lucas’ drawing room that mirrors this episode. At this evening party Austen lets us in on the secret thoughts of a number of characters. Darcy has begun to notice Elizabeth’s ‘fine eyes’ and tries to get within her orbit. Elizabeth in her turn struggles to accept this attention and feels nervous and suspicious of his motives. She is afraid that he will insult her again or try to make her feel ridiculous.

  The conflict starts to unfold with Charlotte Lucas’ interference. She encourages her friend to play the piano and sing. It is as if she knows how Elizabeth’s unaffected charm and musical talent might fascinate this superior, difficult man. Austen’s expertise in this type of scene is on display here. She manoeuvres her characters around the most mundane of social interactions and makes the atmosphere in her rooms ‘electrical’.

  Darcy’s moodiness starts to show, and interests us. He enjoys Elizabeth’s playing. Manners permit him to attend to her as she is performing in a social setting. Then the younger Bennet sisters interfere and demand something livelier. The atmosphere in the room shifts. They pester for ‘Scotch and Irish airs’ to liven things up. These are the very same ‘jigs and reels’ so feared by Faulkland.

  Elizabeth leaves the instrument, so Darcy can no longer gaze upon her. He is frustrated, so at his next interaction he snaps at Sir William. Ever the gracious host, Sir William has only tried to make conversation with Darcy and commented: “There is nothing like dancing after all – I consider it as one of the first refinements of polished societies…”. Darcy retorts perhaps too harshly to this. “Certainly, sir, a
nd it has the advantage of also being in vogue amongst the less polished societies of the world. Every savage can dance.”

  Hugh Thomson illustration, 1894

  A Social Performance

  This cutting reply is undeserved, and it both betrays Darcy’s moodiness and shows a slippage of manners. Charlotte’s suspicions are aroused at this fracture in Darcy’s acceptable social performance. Austen helps the reader to detect that, perhaps, she sees the possible first glimmerings of Darcy and Elizabeth’s mutual attraction. They make each other nervous and irritable. This is all managed expertly in this scene. Austen demonstrates her accomplishment with nuanced social drama and shows how Faulkland was a useful model for Darcy. Sheridan himself recommended Pride and Prejudice to his friends as one of the ‘cleverest’ things he had ever read.

  Performance on the social stage was important, and Austen could channel that. In the cultural framework of her time there were many important social actors. Fashion and fame both played their part in Austen’s invention of Darcy.

  The man possessed of the brightest celebrity trajectory across the first decade of the nineteenth century, contemporary with Austen’s career, was gorgeous George ‘Beau’ Brummell (1778–1840). Brummell is remembered for his friendship with the Prince of Wales and the influence he had upon men’s fashion. For a short period, from 1800–1813, he enjoyed great favour and access at court, but he fell from grace quite spectacularly and had to retire to an ignominious exile in France. He lived on for many years in debt and drunkenness; the competitive, expensive world of London and Royal society ultimately ruined him.

  As a young officer in the Prince of Wales’ personal regiment, Brummell drew attention for his wit, charm and good looks. He was never titled or particularly wealthy, with only a modest inheritance and rank. However, by rejecting the prevailing overly decorative and foppish male fashions of the late eighteenth century, he made an enduring mark.