Category: Austenite Reflections
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Door-bells, petrified spar, and knowing thyself: favorite Shapard annotations from Volume 2 of P&P.
Hello Austenites!
I’m back with my favorite David M. Shapard annotations from Volume Two of Pride & Prejudice! And this is truly a very saucy’ volume as it contains quite arguably one of the worst marriage proposals in the history of fiction! Let’s get to it.
- “On the stairs were a troop of little boys and girls, whose eagerness for their cousin’s appearance would not allow them to wait in the drawing-room, and whose whole shyness, as they had not seen her for a twelvemonth, prevented their coming lower.” (p.290)
- This part of the novel is when Lizzy stops in London on her way to Kent and stays at her Aunt and Uncle’s house. Shapard’s annotation explains that this line has caused confusion, because Mr. & Mrs. Gardiner had recently been to Longborn for Christmas, and people are, like – hold up, why are they away from their kids at Christmas?! Shapard explains that Christmas was not as significant a holiday then as it is now. He says the importance of Christmas in England had declined during the 17th century and many current Christmas traditions, that would appeal to kids, didn’t happen until the middle/late 19th century. During the time of this novel, Christmas was mostly about feasting and partying and therefore mostly just for the adults, so as far as standards of the day, it’s totally reasonable that the Gardiners would have hired a sitter and gone to get their party on at Longborn for Christmas.
- “Your father’s estate is entailed on Mr. Collins, I think. For your sake,” turning to Charlotte, “I am glad of it; but otherwise, I see no occasion for entailing estates from the female line. – It was not thought necessary in Sir Lewis de Bourgh’s family.” (p.318)
- This line is, of course, spoken by Lady Catherine De Bourgh as Lizzy meets her for the first time at Rosings Park. While Lady C is quite awful in many other instances in this book, I do appreciate her view on this. Shapard’s annotation points out that a willingness to allow daughters to inherit an estate is extremely rare in this society. Shapard proposes that Lady C, as the daughter of an Earl (Fitzwilliam), brought a huge infusion of wealth into the family, allowing her husband to build Rosings and perhaps be the first in his family to acquire a title. The prominence of the Fitzwilliams, and Lady C marrying an old, but lesser in rank family, may have allowed for the acceptance of an heiress vs and heir to keep the wealth more directly in the hands of the family vs. a distant relation.
- “Elizabeth had scarcely time to disclaim all right to the compliment, before their approach was announced by the door-bell, and shortly afterwards three gentlemen entered the room.” (p.334)
- Shapard notes his annotation on “door-bell” and shares that doorbells had only recently become a thing. A reference to a doorbell in Persuasion, published 4 years after P & P is the first example of the word cited by the Oxford English Dictionary. I thought that was super cool! Shapard also offers that the fact that Mr. Collins’ house has one is an example of the many great improvements Lady C has done to the place.
- “Till this moment, I never knew myself.” (p.406)
- Okay, stay with me here. This is the point in the novel where Darcy has given Elizabeth the letter explaining himself and telling her the truth about his personal experience with Wickham. We watch Lizzy read and reread this letter and Austen takes us through a very precise and natural progression of Lizzy’s understanding of what the letter says and how she is responding to it. Shapard’s annotation for this line rocked my world and is by far one of my favorites of this edition. “A key conclusion, one that features in other Austen novels as well. The need to understand oneself, and in particular to acknowledge one’s errors and through that knowledge to correct them, is a critical theme in her work. It is often only after a heroine undergoes that process that she deserves, and is able to achieve, happiness. The same general idea appears in one of the prayers Jane Austen wrote, in which she says, “Teach us to understand the sinfulness of our own hearts and bring to our knowledge every fault of temper and every evil habit in which we have indulged to the discomfort of our fellow-creatures, and the danger of our own souls.” … Y’ALL! I love this so much. It just speaks to the universal nuance of how and why Austen’s work resonates with so many of us and how she as person was able to give us gifts of herself through her writing that have become something bigger than herself.
- “But surely, said she, “I may enter his county with impunity, and rob it of a few petrified spars without his perceiving me.” (p.464)
- This is when Lizzy’s Aunt and Uncle tell her that instead of going to the Lake District, they have to content themselves with visiting Derbyshire, Darcy’s hometown. I am the daughter of a rock nerd, so this annotation was super fun to me. Shapard taught me that petrified spars are pieces of fluorspar (calcium fluoride), a luminous crystalline mineral. He says Lizzy would be referring particularly to a variety of fluorspar called Blue John, a purple and white stone that was popular in fancy decorative vases and urns. It was also known as Derbyshire spar, because it was abundant in the canes of the mine in Derbyshire. People would visit caves full of it as a tourist activity and small trinket sized pieces would be sold in shops as souvenirs.
Only five this time, but I was so engrossed in the Second Volume I forgot to pause and mark all the annotations that stood out to me, but these five were definitely memorable.
Annotations from the Third Volume are coming soon and until then keep it saucy’ – it’s what Jane would do.
About the image: “Blue John” or Derbyshire spar – image from and more info at https://www.thymekeepers.co.uk/explore-ways-blue-john-can-work-to-enrich-the-experience-of-life/.
Happy Pride & Prejudice Day!
On this day in 1813, our girl Jane introduced us to our favorite, most clever gal, Elizabeth Bennet and the brooding & incomparable Fitzwilliam Darcy. Jane started writing her first version of this classic, First Impressions, when she was just 20 years old in 1796. She would rework the manuscript in 1811-1812 and transform it into the beloved novel we know and love today.
I am currently reading The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, annotated and edited by David M. Shapard. It’s 774 pages of fangirl bliss, complete with maps, illustrations, a detailed chronology of events, literary comments and analysis, citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings… in a nutshell: It’s absolutely bitchin’.
To celebrate Pride & Prejudice Day, I’m starting a 3-part post with my favorite/most interesting to me annotations from each volume of the novel.
Today I’ll be sharing my top 10 annotations from Volume One:
- “What say you, Mary? For you are a young lady of deep reflection I know, and read great books, and make extracts.” (p.11)
- Make extracts means copying out passages from books. It was a popular thing to do, have an album or journal full of blank pages where you would copy down your favorite passages from books, papers, etc. Especially modern poetry. This was especially popular among women readers at the time, and the journals themselves were special, since it could take the owner years to fill it with their favorite quotes. The annotation also mentions Austen’s Emma, and how a character in that novel is passing around a book collecting verses from people.
- “The rest of the evening was spent in conjecting how soon he would return Mr. Bennet’s visit, and determining when they should ask him to dinner.” (p.13)
- This line is about Mr. Bingley returning Mr. Bennet’s initial visit. This annotation explains the ritual of social introductions. As an established man in the neighborhood, Mr. Bennet visits Mr. Bingley and it’s a super short visit, like, 15 min. Mr. Bingley is then supposed to make a short visit to Mr. Bennet. Then, Mr. Bennet is to invite Mr. Bingley to Longborn for dinner, and only on that longer visit would Mr. Bingley meet the rest of the family. This annotation mentions that according to Jane Austen’s letters, she was very adamant about depicting these social practices properly and fully in novels.
- “So, he enquired who she was, and got introduced, and asked her for the two next.” (p.22)
- This line is Bingley! I love it because he literally saw Jane, was like, “Damn!” Asked who she was to the closest man next to him, got himself introduced, and then got her on lock for dancing. I learned from this annotation that people typically had the same partner for TWO dances in a row and that each pair of dances would last for about half an hour. Most of the movie/series adaptations we see just show us one, quick but meaningful dance with our heroines and their partners, it’s crazy to think that they’d actually have half an hour of talking, flirting, or like in the case of dancing with Mr. Collins, being utterly horrified for 30 full minutes – yikes.
- “Her performance on the piano-forte is exquisite.” (p.70)
- This annotation may be a no-brainer for smarter Austenites than myself, but I didn’t know that piano-forte is the original name for the piano! It’s Italian in derivation and reflects the piano’s ability for playing notes softly or loudly. The annotation mentions that soon after this time in P&P, the abbreviated “piano” would become the norm.
- “Mr. Hurst had therefore nothing to do, but to stretch himself on one of the sophas and go to sleep.” (p.102)
- The annotation taught me that sofas had only recently become a thing at the time of this novel. It was a sign of slightly relaxed formality – laying down or slouching was only permissible to the sick, infirm, or slothful. The annotation still points out that Mr. Hurst, even though sofas were more common, it was NOT common to lay down on one and fall asleep in front of company. Oh, Mr. Hurst, you floozy.
- “—Other books were produced, and after some deliberation he chose Fordyce’s Sermons.” (p.134)
- I had always presumed that Mr. Collins of course would pick a book of sermons to read aloud which would be long and religious and I doubt a welcome read after dinner, BUT the annotation for this line taught me that the book is James Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women. It was widely read at the time and when you realize that Mr. Collins is choosing to read THIS book to his female cousins about how women should behave on his FIRST night meeting them… ugh – he’s such a wet blanket, isn’t he?
- “…and that he was to have a lieutenant’s commission in the -–shire.” (p.144)
- Several times in the novel, when talking of the regiment of soldiers in Meryton, Austen writes: —shire. Shapard’s comment explains that each county in England had to have a certain number of troops for the militia, and they’d make up a regiment or regiments that would be named after their county. Most names of counties ended in -shire, so Jane using —shire allowed her to avoid actually naming any specific regiment. Shapard offers that perhaps Jane did this to avoid being wrong or insulting a particular regiment (since Wickham is gonna turn out to be an assbag). Also, the regiment can’t be from Hertfordshire because militia units served outside their own counties to prevent conflicts of loyalty.
- “Lydia talked incessantly of lottery tickets, of the fish she had lost and the fish she had won…” (p.164)
- Tokens/chips used in betting, which were often shaped like fish…. UM, what?! Fish shaped poker chips?! Adorable! I want a set, like, now.
- “Miss Lucas perceived him from an upper window as he walked towards the house and set out to meet him accidently in the lane.”
- Rereading this novel with Shapard’s annotations has really helped me see how calculating Charlotte Lucas actually is. I feel like most movie representations of Charlotte simply make her matter of fact and that her and Lizzie’s friendship is fine for the most part after Collins proposes and Charlotte accepts, but the novel really shows how Charlotte was actively pursuing/using her feminine wiles to get Mr. Collins on lock, and Lizzie expressed their friendship to be forever altered – Austen writes much of Lizzie’s true feelings of this match and she stays kinda inky toward Charlotte for a while – (but after some time Lizzie warms to Charlotte again.) Reading this version, I love how the annotations illuminate many facets of these characters, not just the main qualities we see abbreviated and highlighted in our movie adaptations.
- This one is actually the first annotation of Volume Two, but I’m putting it here in my top 10 for Volume One because it’s informative and felt like a good cap on this first post – It was standard practice at the time for novels to be divided and published in multiple volumes. The volume breaks in P&P are somewhat arbitrary, as nothing particularly special happens in the last chapter of the volume. No cliff hangers here folks.
There ya have it! I love rereading this novel – I can’t get more than 3-4 pages without learning some delightful little tid-bit from the annotations. I highly recommend this version for anyone wanting to deep dive into P&P.
Happy Pride & Prejudice Day to you all and remember to keep is saucy’ – it’s what Jane would do!
~ Cristina
Postscript:
I also want to include this wonderful list of Top Ten Ways to Celebrate Pride & Prejudice Day 2021 from Jane Austen’s House.
Austensauce 