Pride and Prejudice, Chapters 58 to 61

In this episode, we read the final chapters of Pride and Prejudice. We talk about the dialogue in the final proposal scene, and more generally about proposals in Jane Austen; Mr Bennet’s response to the news, and also Mrs Bennet’s; what the final chapter, and James Austen-Leigh’s Memoir, tells us about what happens next to the characters; the passing reference to the “restoration of peace”; and how the closing sentence is far less memorable than the opening sentence. 

 We discuss the character of Mr Bennet, then Ellen talks about some social changes that happened after the book finished , and Harriet looks at how the adaptations finish – with the surprising discovery that a lot of them give the last word to Mr or Mrs Bennet. 

Things we mention:

 Books: 

• J.E. Austen Leigh, Caroline Austen, Henry Austen, Anna Austen Lefroy, A Memoir of Jane Austen (1869) 
• Charlotte Brontë, Shirley(1849) 
• George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871) 
• D.A. Bonavia-Hunt, Pemberley Shades: A Lightly Gothic Tale of Mr. and Mrs. Darcy (1949)
• Emma Tennant, Pemberley: Or Pride and Prejudice Continued (1993) and An Unequal Marriage (1994)
• P.D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley (2011)
• Colleen McCulloch, The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet (2008) 
• William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595)

Movies and television:

• MGM, Pride and Prejudice (1940) – starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier 
• BBC, Pride and Prejudice (1980) – starring Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul
• BBC, Pride and Prejudice (1995) – starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth
•  Bestboy Pictures, Pride and Prejudice: A Latter Day Comedy (2003) – starring Kam Heskin and Orlando Seale 
• Pathé Pictures International, Bride and Prejudice (2004) – starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson
• Focus Features, Pride & Prejudice (2005) – starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen
• YouTube, Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012) – starring Ashley Clements and Daniel Vincent Gordh 

Creative commons music used:

• Extract from Joseph Haydn, Piano Sonata No. 38. Performance by Ivan Ilić, recorded in Manchester in December, 2006. File originally from IMSLP.
• Extract from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata No. 13 in B-Flat Major, iii. Allegretto Grazioso. File originally from Musopen.