Inhabiting the Character

Pride and Prejudice is a great romance novel.  With characters so interesting and vivid, it's no wonder Jane Austen's work has been adapted many times to both big and small screens, as well as having been the source material for other novels, like Bridget Jones' Diary (a personal favorite) and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  Sometimes Miss Elizabeth Bennet and her Fitzwilliam Darcy are as real as if they were sitting in this room with me.

I'm currently all aflutter over P&P because I watched a charming movie the other night, Lost in Austen.  It tells the tale of a die-hard P&P fan, Amanda, who discovers the heroine of her favorite novel in her bathroom, after the latter has come through a door from Regency-era Longbourne (fictional home of the Bennet family) into the shower of our protagonist in modern-day London.  They switch places for a time, during which Amanda completely turns the plot of this classic novel on its head.

As events change, characters previously missing from the original novel appear, and it's if they have always been there, only Jane Austen forgot to tell us about them.  The world of Pride and Prejudice is fully intact, especially the dreamy Mr. Darcy.

I don't know what it is about Mr. Darcy that makes him so irresistible.  He is a snob, he jumps to conclusions, he lets his (wait for it) pride get in the way of finding happiness, and he says terrible things to Elizabeth over the course of their "courtship", but there is just something about him.  When it comes to the actors who portray this hero, may I just say, damn.

Colin Firth was my first Darcy.  He was cast in the film version of Bridget Jones' Diary partly because of his amazing portrayal in the 1995 BBC production of P&P.  Dandy collar and all, he was to die for, especially emerging from the lake on Pemberly in a white shirt and breeches. 

Then came the 2005 Kiera Knightley/Matthew Macfadyen rendition.  There was something a little rougher around the edges in this Darcy, and a scene with mists and fields and open collar, oh my.

This week it was Elliott Cowan whom I saw as the haughty Fitzwilliam.  As his colleagues before him, pulling on the mantel of an arrogant, prideful suitor, Mr. Cowan transformed into something purely divine.  And kudos to the writers of Lost in Austen who, in a wonderful homage to the 1995 film, had Amanda instruct Darcy to go into the lake.  Sigh.

I'm not sure I'm a big fan of that period, the restraint, the propriety, the clothes, but when each of those actors (who are attractive and talented in any role I've seen them play otherwise), puts on that Regency garb, curls his lip just so, looks down upon a witty and intelligent woman and say, "My good opinion once lost is lost forever," well, it's enough to sink down in your seat and fan yourself. 

And that is what I'm thankful for this holiday season.

(Was this post link-fantastic, or what?)