Lydia and Wickham

I have just written that a former friend of 24 years and I have parted, in that this is no longer my favourite book, or even one I still like. I wrote that before I finished rereading the novel, but had seen a film and TV series.

The end of the novel did redeem a few points, such as Darcy confessing his arrogance in his pivotal letter to Eliza. I was relieved to recall that such an epistle was not meant to recommend the reader to him, and that had the grace to change after Elizabeth's blunt rebuff. The novel is at leisure to explain more of Eliza's thoughts and deliberations. On the screen, a face can tell an emotion - but not a thought process. Understanding more of the latter has helped regain some appreciation of the novel.

As regards the 1995 TV series, I feel that the invented scenes (valid as a concept) were at the expense of important things that are in the novel, especially Eliza's concerns from her trip to Hunsford onward, and their absence weakens the story.

I still would like to mention the following faults of the book: that Mr Collins is seen as unlovable my anyone of taste - but no-one should ever be seen as that, and I lose respect for an author that demands it. Many characters are caricatures and are not given the opportunity to alter.

My chief concern, other than what I said in my first piece, is around Wickham.

I tried to think what my thoughts would be if I had received Darcy's letter to Eliza.

I could imagine that neither Wickham's nor Darcy's report was wholly the truth. Andrew Davies shows us scenes of Darcy and Wickham's Cambridge years, not spelt out in the novel. We are to be shocked at the thought of Wickham sleeping with young women, but so many of us have sexual relationships at university - it is probably a majority, and perhaps even assumed. So why are we to be such judges of Wickham? Did Darcy never do likewise? And does finding a girl being intimate with Wickham in his room follow that he was having just casual relationships? Perhaps she was the love of his life, and Darcy interfered?!

For a so called gentleman, there were few career choices. I could spout about the education expected - without intellectual talent or desire - but purely as a mark of respectability, and how Austen seems to agree by calling it 'a gentlemen's education'. After which, Wickham has law, medicine, the church, or the army to choose from; all of which should involve aptitude and a kind of calling, a wish to serve through that profession, and none more than the church. But vicars were not about their conviction of faith, their teaching and leading or pastoral abilities. And if Wickham turned down ordination knowing that in conscience, he could not take orders if he did not feel called to this, then he is honourable - more so than the many who took it for the money and esteem. It took a bit of courage to go against a beloved mentor's wishes, and turn down the living.

Wickham's reasons for running off with Lydia escaped me in the adaptations, but as it is so vital, time is needed to be spend explaining it.

I wondered how Wickham thought his elopement would turn out, for he must know of the silly social rules which would ruin Lydia and her disgrace would make her family hate him; and that his behaviour would easily spoil his chances of earning or living respectably. It seems he had not planned to marry Lydia, so did he intend just to live with her until the passion cooled or his next interest appeared? Did he intend to keep running with his debts, or did he scheme that her recovery might be the means of his clearing them?

I can in a sense feel sorry for one with financial pressures of creditors, and knowing your inheritance and family help to be spent, have to think of other ways to pay. I see the irony of a man having to look to a prudent match to sort out his money worries as much as several of Austen's heroines have to. But their problem is due to being female, it is implied, and therefore not their fault if estates are legally inherited by someone else. Gentlewomen are not expected to work, but gentlemen are (though in Lost in Austen, the modern heroine criticises Darcy for being rich but not working). I think this cannot be true as running a great estate with tenants and employees must involve work; and is he not frequently speaking of business which makes him go to and from town, or as en excuse (eg after proposing to Elizabeth, to avoid Lady Catherine).

I am still unsure and unconvinced about his attempted elopement with Georgiana Darcy. Could he really have just wanted to spite her brother? And why elope - is it to press the family into a hasty marriage and then Wickham inherits his bride's money? But to live unhappily just to be rich or pay off debts, and to take your partner with you and ally yourself to an unwilling and unsupporting family: this seems too unwise and unkind, even from a totally selfish point of view.

Wickham is clearly quite cunning, in that when Darcy finds him in London, he meets with him alone often to negotiate his effective fee for the sanctification of Darcy's sister in law. I had often wondered about the £10,000 that Mr Bennet reckons needed to have been laid for Wickham to be appeased. How did Mr B came up with such a figure? - it seems to contradict what Mrs Gardiner writes to Lizzy. Wickham's debts seem to have only been £1k, and he additionally asked for a modest allowance for Lydia and for her share of her family's inheritance, which was to be paid by Mr Bennet.

Although I applaud the explicit denigration of Mr Collins' idea of being Christian is to banish Lydia from the family, this is in effect what happens. None of her family are allowed to visit Newcastle, despite Lydia's many invitations. Mr Bennet has much to answer for, but he shows seakenessin at first refusing Lydia and Wickham to his home, but then saying that Wickham is his favourite son in law! That he openly disregards three of his daughters and his wife also says little, and would Mrs Bennet really fear for him fighting Wickham if that was outside of his character. Mr Bennet is not a man I would wish for as a father, though he is most sympathetic in Lost in Austen.

Wickham and Lydia feel too bad to me, and unlike Darcy, are given no chance to repent or improve. Wickham is a libertine and a debtor, who seems to prey on rich young girls.

Overall, this story feels like an exaggerated play with lots of codas ant the end to wind everything up. Some of them were helpful - I wondered how Jane coped with her sisters in law, who had been so unkind an insincere, how Miss Bingley felt about Elizabeth marrying Darcy; about her relations with her friends and family after marriage. It was important to know about Lady Catherine's response, and that she did eventually visit the polluted Pemberley. I like that it ends with Mrs Gardiner, now Elizabeth's best friend.

I have amused myself thinking how as a screenwriter I would have satisfied audience need for closure without a baggy ending. I shan't share those thoughts here, except to say that my final view would have involved the pony ride that Mrs Gardiner cheekily asked for.