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115 pages

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A Look Behind the Curtain...

For lovers of Pride and Prejudice, the characters are like old friends. Everyone knows the who and the what of the cherished tale, but WHAT JANE AUSTEN DIDN'T TELL US! fills in the how, why – and especially the when.

For instance, why would Mr. Bennet marry such a foolish woman?
And how did his daughter Lizzy develop such a fierce independent streak?

Seventeen dramatic portraits take us into the lives of the story's beloved figures before they enter the pages of the novel. Triumphs and follies, victories and social disasters, the characters' pasts reveal hidden secrets, unexpected intersections, and new motivations for all the goings-on from Longhorn to Pemberley – and all places in between.

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Historical

Fiction

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Publié par	eBookIt.com
Date de parution	10 août 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781456628833
Langue	English

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What Jane Austen Didn’t Tell Us!
The Backstories of the Characters
in Pride and Prejudice

Conceived and Edited by:
Linda Dennery, Gene Gill, Bill McCay,
Linda Pedro, and Rosemarie Santini

WHAT JANE AUSTEN DIDN’T TELL US! © 2017 by the Austen Alliance: Linda Lieberman Dennery, Gene Crum Gill, William Anthony McCay, Linda Carol Pedro, Rosemarie Santini
All stories are copyright of their respective creators and the Austen Alliance. All stories are reproduced here with permission.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Austen Alliance except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any reference to historical events, real people or real places are used fictitiously.
Book and cover design by Kelly Gold - kellygold.com
Images licensed from Shutterstock.
First printing, 2017
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
Print Book ISBN 9781456628840
eBook ISBN 9781456628833
The Austen Alliance
Linda Dennery, Administrator
171 W 57 th Street
New York, NY 10019
+1-212-757-9032
austenalliance@gmail.com

For the Inimitable Jane Austen,
without whom ...
Introduction
WHAT JANE AUSTEN DIDN’T TELL US! is not a novel—rather, we present seventeen portraits of Pride and Prejudice characters with their own motivations, complexities and conflicts, victories and defeats, comic and even tragic elements, before they appear in the classic tale.
Why did we write this book?
Because the characters Austen created are real to her readers. We’ve read what happens to them in the novel and want to know more about them—to understand what made these beloved characters who they are as the curtain rises in the drawing room at Longbourn.
So many questions to answer!
Was Fitzwilliam Darcy a quiet child, or could he have been a chatty, fun-loving boy? How did the proud Darcy become friends with Charles Bingley, the son of a tradesman? What kind of childhood upbringing could produce an awkward, fawning figure as the Reverend Collins? Or his opposite, the imperious Lady Catherine de Bourgh? Jane Austen didn’t tell us these things ... With great reverence for her artistry, we’ve attempted to imagine them. Please turn the page and enjoy our efforts.
Editorial Note
While this book is meant for the enjoyment of the general reader, a few items of Austen scholarship have crept in. Perhaps the most notable is the spelling on the name of the Bennet sisters’ aunt, Catherine Philips. When Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813, the name was spelled “Phillips” and has remained so in most subsequent editions. However, there is strong evidence that Austen had actually used “Philips,” which led the renowned scholar R.W. Chapman to follow that spelling in the definitive Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen six-volume collection. As an editorial decision, we attempted to honor the author’s original intention in this matter.
There was also a question of how to base the dates used in our reconstructions of the characters’ lives. A first draft of Pride and Prejudice , then titled First Impressions , was offered for publication in 1797 and declined. For purposes of our collection, the action of the novel begins shortly before Michaelmas (September 29) of 1813, the year Pride and Prejudice was first published. At the time, Michaelmas was one of the days used to mark the quarters of the financial year, and would serve as the starting date for the lease of a property—such as Netherfield Park.
Please know if any details turn out to diverge from the historical track, it is not from lack of diligence but from honest mistakes by the authors and editors.
Elizabeth Bennet
by the Editors and Meg Levin

They are all silly and ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters.
—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Miss Elizabeth Bennet, her petticoats six inches deep in mud, pulled the wriggling piglet away from her eleven siblings busy nuzzling Bessie, Mr. Bennet’s prize Berkshire sow. Leaning forward, she reached for Bessie’s left ear. Surely, now she was almost three and a half, Nurse must help her conjure a beautiful silk purse for Mama. Bessie seemed to have no objection, and Nurse was the wisest person in the whole world, except for Papa.
Unfortunately, the piglet shoved itself underfoot, sending Elizabeth into a tumble. Her older sister Jane arrived just in time to scream at the apparition rising from the muck. Nurse hurried to the scene to find one child tear-stained yet spotless—and the other covered in a thick coating of mud.
Hurriedly cleaned but still smelling strongly of pig-wallow, Elizabeth tried to explain things to her parents. Mama may like Jane best, she thought. But once she hears about my wonderful gift ...
However, Elizabeth was doomed to disappointment once again. Mrs. Bennet found the exploits of her second-born inexplicable, almost as maddening as the roar of laughter from her husband as he heard the tale. Nurse, however, smiled in relief. That laughter was the first natural sound to come from the master in many weeks.
The house had been strangely silent since the birth of Baby Catherine, known as Kitty. Despite the safe delivery, her mistress, ordinarily so voluble, remained preoccupied and distracted. This baby brought no joy to Longbourn, except for Jane, who loved peeping into the cradle to smile and coo at her. Elizabeth found the infant dull company. And hearing her father complain about the new arrival and the lack of an heir made Elizabeth worry: If Papa does not like Kitty, should I?
On one of her father’s rare visits to the nursery, he paused for a moment and said, “My dear Mrs. Bennet, what a smiling picture you make in your white gown, dandling your newest darling on your knee while our eldest gazes on in raptures. You quite put me in mind of Mr. Romney’s Countess of Warwick and her Children —but exceeding them in beauty.”
Then he scooped up Elizabeth from where she was playing on the floor. “But so much perfection is not for the likes of us, eh, Lizzy?” Ruffling her hair as he led her away, he added with a chuckle, “We are better suited to Bessie and the stables.”
Holding onto his strong hand, Elizabeth thought: Does Papa not think that I am pretty, too?
But when he hoisted her up in front of him on his favorite bay, she forgot her complaint as Orion became the shared throne from which they together surveyed the magical landmarks of their kingdom.
Mr. Bennet spoke to his daughter as they rode: “Look, Lizzy, that field is planted with wheat. Here is the blacksmith’s shop. Over there is Abel Smyth’s farmhouse.”
“Faster, Papa, faster!” she pleaded.
Smiling, he urged the horse into a trot. Elizabeth cried out with glee.
But then—disaster!
On a deserted stretch of road, Orion stepped into a fox’s hole and broke his fetlock. The horse crashed to the ground, screaming in pain. Mr. Bennet was barely able to leap free of the falling animal. He managed to protect his child, clutching her tightly against his chest, but broke his own leg when he landed.
Elizabeth saw blood gushing from Orion as he thrashed on the ground; her father was white-faced and unable to stand. This is my fault , she thought.
“Papa, I am sorry,” she wailed.
He clenched his teeth, saying as evenly as he could, “Lizzy, calm yourself. I want you to walk back around the bend.”
“No! I shall not leave you,” she insisted.
Realizing she was paralyzed with fear, he softened his voice. “You are a brave girl, and you must fetch some help.”
The horse screamed again in pain, causing Elizabeth to throw her arms around her father. “Please,” he said grimly, “walk around the bend and run up to the first person you see. Tell them to come at once.”
Tears fell from her darkened eyes as Elizabeth grasped his meaning. Trembling, she jumped up and ran as fast as her pudgy legs would carry her to bring aid.
Afterwards, Mr. Bennet praised her to everyone. “Lizzy is my brave girl,” he would repeat often.
While Mr. Bennet recovered from his leg fracture, he often invited Elizabeth into his library. She sat on the floor, her arm gently wrapped around his injured leg, as he read his favorite Robinson Crusoe to her.
The accident forged a special bond between father and daughter. It also left Elizabeth, usually so courageous, with an enduring dread of the saddle. She never rode if she could avoid it, even when her mother and sisters made sport of her. Instead, she became a great walker on her travels about the estate.
Normally mothers read aloud to their children before they learned to read for themselves. Mrs. Bennet mistrusted female education but did enjoy the fashion periodicals. So, before learning to read their letters and primers, her daughters discovered the larger world in the form of sleeve lengths, bonnet-styles, and coiffures.
When Elizabeth and Jane were five and seven, their father encouraged word and song play to sharpen their ears for the rhyme and meter of poetry. One spring day, the girls were with him in the garden when Mrs. Bennet and Nurse came out to fetch the children for their dinner. Mrs. Bennet heard Jane rhyming “star” and “far” and remarked, “I never bothered my head with such things at their age.”
“Yes,” her husband responded, “you prefer to keep it unfurnished.” Puzzled, Elizabeth asked what “unfurnished” meant.
“It means empty,” her father replied.
Gleefully, Elizabeth chanted: “Empty head, empty head, Mama has an empty head.”
“Miss Elizabeth!” Nurse scolded. “You should not say such a thing!”
Surprised, Elizabeth looked at her father. “But, Papa...”
Mr. Bennet, not meeting her eyes and with a strange expression on his face, said, “That will do, child. Go in to dinner at once.”
Over her shoulder, Elizabeth saw her mother glaring at her father, but his eyes remained on his book.
In due course,