Celebrating 200 Years of Pride and Prejudice

PandPPartyHop1-1Although Jane Austen’s birthday has already come and gone, I wanted to share a fan letter I wrote to Jane Austen on the occasion of her 236th birthday:

Dear Miss Austen,

In celebration of your birthday, my gift to you would be to tell you about your legacy. (Though it is actually a gift you gave yourself.) Through your books, you have achieved a certain type of immortality. They have become movies and musicals, and you yourself have even become the heroine of novels and movies. You have awakened the creativity of other writers, and you have shown generations of women what a true gentleman ought to be.

And I would like you to know that women no longer have to marry for reasons other than love. We are free to follow our hearts, just as you dreamed.

That knowledge is my birthday gift to you, if only I could tell you.


13 thoughts on “Celebrating 200 Years of Pride and Prejudice

  1. My favorite minor character is from P&P. Mr. Bennett. How can you not like a jovial father who allows his daughters to be who they are and love them for it?

  2. I like the pragmatic views expressed by Charlotte Lucas to Elizabeth, but have always wondered how she managed with Mr. Collins as a husband and Lady Catherine as an overlord (so to speak). Even with her pragmatism there was an under current of calculated savviness as she snapped up Mr. Collins and then orchestrated their days as to spend the least amount of time together possible. I’ve always been fascinated by how others view her and how other writers develop her.

  3. I have so many favorites…Ms Austen wrote so many wonderful characters…
    have to say Georgianna…needs to have her story told…needs a happy ever after of her own…also love Anne Elliot…the list goes on and on

  4. So may to choose from, but as I’ve read Pride and Prejudice the most I’d have to go with Col. Fitzwilliam!

  5. I think Jane would be thrilled to know the idea of marriage has changed in the last 200 years. I think she would be even happier to know the idea of what it means to be a woman–a successful woman–has changed.

  6. Col. Fitzwilliam, because he is like Darcy’s mirror in personality in the early part of the book… Amiable and gentlemanly :o)

  7. I liked Jane’s dad, Mr. Bennett. His recognition & support of her wit, and encouragement of all his children.

  8. Georgiana Darcy is my favourite minor character in P&P. We know so little about her that I long to see her become a heroine in her own story.

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