OK, so Pemberley might be an imaginary place, but the beautiful stately homes that play the role in the 1995 BBC adaptation and the 2005 movie certainly fill its britches admirably. Likewise, the other houses chosen for Longbourn, Netherfield and Rosings have also become hugely evocative locations for P&P fans. For lovers of the novel and the wider world of Pride and Prejudice, a wedding in one of these venues would be almost too romantic to bear. Add to this the Regency suits and dresses, the carriages and servants – not to mention the fact that you’d be (hopefully!) marrying the love of your life – and it would be enough to turn all but the most waterproof of mascaras into an inky stream of tears.

Here are some Pride and Prejudice wedding venues you could choose from if you are lucky enough to be considering any kind of Austen-themed wedding. Most are available for both civil ceremonies and receptions, and we’ve included all the links so you can easily find out more. If anyone has already had such a wedding, you simply MUST let us know!

Longbourn

If you like the idea of having your family running around you like headless Mrs Bennets as you prepare for your big day, then Luckington Court, which plays Longbourn in the BBC series, would be a nice option. Brides and their families are given exclusive access to the master en-suite bedroom during the day, giving everyone a private place to laugh, cry and complain about their nerves as the wedding progresses. The house can accommodate up to 80 people. Up to 400 can be accommodated in a marquee on the lawn.

Luckington Court is in the village of Luckington, in the Cotswolds. It’s 100 miles from London, 24 miles from Stroud, 22 miles from Bristol and 18 miles from Bath.

Here is Luckington Court’s website.

Pemberley

Lyme Park, which plays Pemberley in the BBC show, isn’t available for weddings but it is possible to rent a cottage on the estate for a perfect honeymoon.

On the other hand, Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire, which is also used for the interior Pemberley shots in the BBC Pride and Prejudice series, is available for civil weddings. The saloon, a room which does feature in the show, can seat 40 people and has room for another 60 standing. The price is £680, but you’ll need to consult the management to find out exactly what this covers.

Ceremonies only take place on Mondays and Tuesdays, usually between April and October. Winter weddings may also be possible by arrangement. Click here for more information about weddings at Sudbury Hall.

The magnificent Chatsworth House, Pemberley in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie, is available for weddings between April and November. The Hartington Room can seat up to 90 guests for the ceremony. The Rose Garden and Stables Courtyard are available for wedding photos, and the Carriage House restaurant can accommodate up to 200 people for evening receptions.

Have a look at their wedding page here or download the wedding brochure.

Chatsworth is near Matlock in the Peak District, is 25 miles from Chesterfield and about 30 miles from Sheffield.

The other Pemberley in the 2005 movie is Wilton House, which has wedding packages from £3000. There’s not much information on their website so you’ll need to contact them for more information. Wilton is near Salisbury in Wiltshire.

Rosings

Rosings would make a slightly unusual wedding venue for Pride and Prejudice fans, since its something of a villain in the BBC TV series. However, Belton House, Lady Catherine’s residence in the show, is a beautiful building set in beautiful formal gardens and parkland. It’s also the location of some of the show’s most romantic scenes.

Various rooms are made available for civil ceremonies, with capacities ranging from 12 to 60 guests. Prices range from £600 to £2000 plus taxes, depending on the room chosen and the day of the wedding. Photographs can be taken in the formal gardens for an additional fee.

Belton House is three miles north of Grantham in Lincolnshire. Here is its homepage.

You can also have your wedding in Burghley House, Rosings in the 2005 movie. You can download a wedding information pack here.

There are three licensed rooms and, for receptions, the Great Hall can seat 110 people for dinner and the Orangery can accept up to 80. More are possible for drinks receptions. Most excitingly, you can be given exclusive use of the house for your wedding.

Burghley House is near Stamford, 90 miles north of London.

Netherfield

Netherfield in the 2005 movie is played by Basildon Park, seven miles north-west of Reading in southeastern England. Netherfield is given a certain coldness in the movie, with Joe Wright wanting to represent it as a temporary place of residence without the warmth of a true ‘home.’ However, let’s not blame the property itself, which is a beautiful 18th Century mansion.

Prices are all TBC but two rooms are made available. The Grand Hall can seat 70 people and the Garden Room can cope with 60. Marquee receptions on the lawn are possible, starting from £3000.

More on weddings at Basildon Park is available here.

Well, that’s about it for the venues. Other aspects of having a Pride and Prejudice wedding, like costumes and carriages and so on, will be covered in later posts. Once the minor detail of finding a husband has been taken care of, we’ll have pretty much all the information you need for a perfect P&P wedding.

Once again, if you’ve already had one, or are planning such an event, we’d love to hear about it!

Your fabulously fantasizing friend,

Lizzy

One of the many things I enjoyed about the Lost in Austen TV series was Alex Kingston’s Mrs Bennet. The show approached Pride and Prejudice with all the studied reverence of a rabid baboon at a prayer meeting but, while it obviously ran roughshod over the storyline, its approach to the characters was more complicated. Of course, Caroline Bingley was bizarrely revealed to be a kind of predatory lesbian and Mr. Wickham was reinterpreted as a noble-hearted rogue, but there were some more subtle characterizations that are worthy of more serious attention.

I particularly enjoyed Alex Kingston’s Mrs Bennet. She is a tougher, more consciously manipulative and formidable a character than we are used to seeing in screen adaptations. She is, as Amanda puts it, ‘a real ball-breaker.’ Kingston’s Mrs Bennet has her hysterical side, of course, but in her quiet moments shows also a ruthless streak that shocks even Hammersmith’s streetwise Miss Price.

There is a horrible scene in which Mrs Bennet is seemingly comforting Jane on her bed. The latter is inconsolable after Mr Bingley has slighted her at the Netherfield ball, when Mrs Bennet, cuddling her daughter and stroking her hair, whispers:

You are of more use to this family than all your sisters together. For you are elegant and kindly and obedient, and in the morning you shall come prettily to breakfast and sit beside Mr Collins that he may see this lovely long neck…

She threatens Amanda with something wholly unagreeable, which shall come to her ‘like a thief in the night,’ and when she kicks Miss Price out of Netherfield, her delivery is so wonderfully spiteful:

The time has come Miss Price that we cannot in all conscience detain you with our hospitality. Upon your return to Longbourn you will collect what is yours and surrender what is not, and you will leave my house.

Even when suffering her famous attacks of nerves it seems like there is something contrived about her. To me, Kingston’s Mrs Bennet is at the opposite end of the spectrum to Alison Steadman’s 1995 interpretation. Steadman’s character is socially incompetent, impulsive, and endowed with a level of self-awareness usually bestowed on creatures that attack their own reflections when scientists present them with mirrors. Kingston’s on the other hand is actually a little frightening. When she tells her daughters how to behave for Mr Collins, for example, we see her as certain critics have described her – as essentially prostituting her own daughters for financial gain. Ironically for a comic spin-off, there is less of her to laugh about in Lost in Austen than there is in the straight adaptations.

Another thing I liked is that she is younger than her predecessors in the role, and perhaps closer to the age Jane Austen intended. In Alex Kingston, much remains of the beauty that attracted the young “Claude” Bennet to his future bride, so the fact they are together isn’t a complete mystery. She also has the social skills to suggest that not only a true masochist would join her in matrimony. Alison Steadman’s Mrs Bennet is so majestic in her awfulness, that why he would have proposed to her is anyone’s guess. With Alex Kingston’s, it’s as if she uses her hysteria on her husband because he has become numb to the feminine charms that once attracted him. She can’t threaten him as she does Miss Price, or manipulate him as she does her daughters, so she she shrieks and flaps around him until he caves in.

To be fair, she is redeemed a lot towards the end, as she sees the true ‘Prometheun misery’ of her daughter Jane in marriage to Mr Collins, and it’s nice when she threatens Lady Catherine de Bourgh with being turned upside down and used to scrape out Lady Ambrosia’s sty!

What did you think of Alex Kingston as Mrs Bennet in Lost in Austen? What’s your interpretation of my interpretation of her interpretation (so to speak)?

Please let me know your thoughts!

Your ever so slightly scared friend,

Lizzy

This is our third feature on the endings of the major Pride and Prejudice adaptations. For the 1995 BBC series, click here. Click here for the 1980 BBC TV series.

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As stated in our 1980 ending post, the final scenes of Pride and Prejudice are difficult to adapt for the screen. Tidy endings tend to work best on TV and in movies, but the novel ends with an epilogue covering several years of developments, which would probably translate rather awkwardly to television or film. All dramatizers of the novel therefore have to make a difficult choice as to where to end the story. The 2005 movie has the distinction of actually having two endings – one for the United States and one, it seems, for everywhere else. Apparently the final scene of the American version was deemed a little too schmaltzy for most of the rest of the world, especially the UK. Here then, is a transcript of the script which covers both releases.

We start after Lady Catherine de Bourgh has warned Lizzy at Longbourn about rumors of her engagement to Mr Darcy, and taken her leave. In this version, the outdoor scene in which Mr Darcy and Elizabeth expresses their love for each other does not take place during a pleasant stroll to Meryton, but rather as Lizzy walks through the misty grounds of Longbourn at dawn. Mr Darcy, her partner in love and insomnia, joins her.

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EXT. LONGBOURN GROUNDS – DAWN

Mr Darcy appears through the mist and walks towards Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH:
I couldn’t sleep.

DARCY:
Nor I. My aunt…

ELIZABETH:
Yes, she was here.

DARCY:
How can I ever make amends for such behavior?

ELIZABETH:
After what you have done for Lydia, and I suspect for Jane also, it is I who should be making amends.

DARCY:
You must know. Surely you must know it was all for you. You are too generous to trifle with me. I believe you spoke with my aunt last night and this taught me to hope, as I’d scarcely allowed myself before. If your feelings are still what they were last April then tell me so at once. My affections and wishes have not changed. But one word from you will silence me forever. If, however, your feelings have changed, I would have to tell you, you have bewitched me, body and soul. And I love, I love, I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.

Elizabeth kisses his hand.

ELIZABETH:
Well, then. Your hands are cold.

They embrace, with their faces touching and the sun rising behind them.

Elizabeth is pacing impatiently outside her father’s library. She smiles to herself. Mr Darcy opens the door. Elizabeth rushes into the room.

MR BENNET (OFF-SCREEN):
Shut the door please, Elizabeth.

As the door closes, Elizabeth and Darcy watch each other intently.

MR BENNET:
Lizzy, are you out of your senses? I thought you hated the man!

ELIZABETH:
No, Papa.

MR BENNET:
He is rich, to be sure. You will have more fine carriages than Jane. But will that make you happy?

ELIZABETH:
Have you no other objection than your belief in my indifference?

MR BENNET:
None at all. We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of fellow, but this would be nothing if you really liked him.

ELIZABETH:
I do like him. I love him. He’s not proud. I was wrong. I was entirely wrong about him. You don’t know, Papa, if I told you what he was really like, what he’s done…

MR BENNET:
What has he done?

Mr Darcy is sitting outside Longbourn with the animals, as Mrs Bennet and Jane look on from behind a window. Darcy stands and begins pacing up and down.

MRS BENNET:
But she doesn’t like him. I thought she didn’t like him.

JANE:
So did I. So did we all. We must have been wrong.

MRS BENNET:
It wouldn’t be the first time, would it?

JANE:
No.

Elizabeth and Mr Bennet are still together. Mr Bennet has heard of Darcy’s involvement in the marriage of Lydia and Mr Wickham.

MR BENNET:
Good Lord! I must pay him back.

ELIZABETH:
No, you mustn’t tell anyone. He wouldn’t want it. We misjudged him, Papa, me more than anyone – in every way, not just in this matter. I’ve been nonsensical. He’s been a fool, about Jane, about so many other things, but then so have I. You see, he and I are… he and I are so similar. We’re both so stubborn. Papa…

Mr Bennet, along with Lizzy, is starting to cry.

MR BENNET:
(Laughs) You really do love him, don’t you.

ELIZABETH:
Very much.

MR BENNET:
I cannot believe that anyone can deserve you, but it seems I am overruled. So, I heartily give my consent.

They hug.

MR BENNET:
I could not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to anyone less worthy.

Elizabeth leaves.

MR BENNET:
If any young men come for Mary or Kitty then for Heaven’s sake send them in. I am quite at my leisure.

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So ends the non-American version of Pride and Prejudice. This is the final scene of the US edition, also available as an alternate ending in international editions of the DVD.

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EXT. PEMBERLEY – NIGHT

We see Pemberley, reflected in the lake at night. Mr Darcy sits down next to Elizabeth.

MR DARCY:
How are you this evening, my dear?

ELIZABETH:
Very well. Only, I wish you would not call me ‘my dear.’

MR DARCY:
Why?

ELIZABETH:
‘Cause it’s what my father always calls my mother when he’s cross about something.

MR DARCY:
What endearments am I allowed?

ELIZABETH:
Well, let me think. ‘Lizzy’ for every day. ‘My pearl’ for Sundays, and ‘Goddess Divine,’ but only on very special occasions.

MR DARCY:
And what shall I call you when I’m cross? Mrs Darcy?

ELIZABETH:
No. No. You may only call me ‘Mrs Darcy’ when you are completely, perfectly and incandescently happy.

MR DARCY:
But how are you this evening, Mrs Darcy? Mrs Darcy. Mrs Darcy. Mrs Darcy.

He kisses her between each ‘Mrs Darcy.’ FADE OUT as their lips meet.

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So, what do you feel about these endings? I have to admit to being glad that my DVD stops before the final scene of the US edition. It’s just too overdone for my taste, and very different from the tone of the book. However, I do love the conversation between Elizabeth and Mr Bennet, as Lizzy expresses her love for Darcy and Mr Bennet feels such immense happiness and relief for his daughter.

Please let me know how you feel about both of these endings. Which is your favorite? Do you prefer these final scenes to those of the 1980 or 1995 adaptations? Which captures the ending of the book most faithfully?

In one of Pride and Prejudice’s many ironic twists, Mr Collins, the most inherently absurd and hilarious of characters, marries the novel’s most tragic figure. Poor Charlotte does nothing to deserve what Lost in Austen’s Mr Bennet describes as the ‘Promethean misery of marriage to Collins.’ However, at 27 years old, ‘without having ever been handsome,’ she simply ran out of options. This passage, although it contains some typical Austen irony, is also unusually direct and darker in tone that most of the book:

Mr. Collins, to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband. Without thinking highly either of men or matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want. This preservative she had now obtained; and at the age of twenty-seven, without having ever been handsome, she felt all the good luck of it.

What manner of degradation and subjugation could lead someone to feel lucky for securing a husband like Mr Collins? Nevertheless, Charlotte is unswervingly loyal to her new husband. Elizabeth can’t help looking at her for signs of discontentment, but sees very little.

[Elizabeth] looked with wonder at her friend that she could have so cheerful an air with such a companion. When Mr. Collins said anything of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed, which certainly was not unseldom, she involuntarily turned her eye on Charlotte. Once or twice she could discern a faint blush; but in general Charlotte wisely did not hear.

To me, this just makes it all the more horrible. She can’t complain about him to her friends, nor tweet nor blog of her troubles. Rather, she must express gratitude to her husband and of course his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and avoid giving any signs of her discontentment. What she does say, for example about encouraging Mr Collins to spend time in his garden, is in a kind of code.

This all has the potential to be very dark, but in the major adaptations the filmmakers have generally tried to keep it fairly light. In the 1980 adaptation, Charlotte and Elizabeth even share a giggle over the former’s new husband. Extra little comedic scenes with Collins are added to lighten the mood, when it would surely have been more interesting to explore the reality of such a life. It is, after all, a future that Elizabeth only narrowly avoided through her own strength of will. In my view, the 1995 and 2005 adaptations both do the same to an extent, with the 1995 series coming closest to recreating the tone of the book.

Marriage to Mr Collins was, as critic Robert M. Polhemus put it, ‘a kind of socially respectable prostitution in which Charlotte acquiesces.’ Her plight is just one example of how the main story – so ‘light and bright and sparkling’ – nevertheless flirts with many darker themes. It’s interesting that, of all the dramatizations, it’s Lost in Austen that presents life with Mr Collins in the darkest and most uncompromising manner. They do this by transforming Collins into an almost unrecognizable middle-aged slimely, fetishistic letch, which lessens some of the impact.  In the book, so much is left unsaid between her and Elizabeth that it only adds to the sense of gloom.

Darcy

Here are My Pride and Prejudice’s all time top 10 pictures of the beautiful, kind and good-natured Jane Bennet.In no particular order and from all the major screen and TV adaptations we have Rosamund Pike (2005), Susannah Harker (1995), Sabina Franklyn (1980), Maureen O’Sullivan(1940) and Morven Christie (lost in Austen).

For the houses in the BBC 1995 Pride and Prejudice series click here. For those used in the 2005 movie, click here.

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In our third feature on the properties used in Pride and Prejudice adaptations, we cover the houses of ITV’s spin-off series, Lost in Austen. The breathtaking houses and locations used in the show only heighten Miss Amanda’s fish-out-of-water status, as she is transported from her cramped London flat to a completely different social world. Shocked by the splendor of Netherfield, with a front lawn large enough to ‘park a bloody jumbo,’ Amanda is then greeted with the intimidating Rosings and stunning Pemberley, each playing their part to perfection. It’s wonderful that there are so many beautifully kept stately homes in the UK to keep film-makers’ options open. Each property has only been used once so far, but surely we must be running out…

Allerton Castle (Rosings)

Allerton Castle, near the town of Knaresborough in north Yorkshire, plays Lady Catherine’s lair in Lost in Austen, complete with the ‘clasping buttresses’ so admired by Mr Collins. Set in 200 acres of parkland and formal gardens, not to mention the stunning north Yorkshire countryside, the present house was built between 1848 and 1854. The building is available for almost every occasion: weddings, private parties, corporate events, and also of course the filming of irreverent Pride and Prejudice spin-off TV series.

Allerton Castle is the ancestral home of Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton. (I had to re-read this several times to establish that this is only one person!) The ceiling of the Great Hall, which is the entrance to Allerton Castle, is over 80ft high, making it one of the grandest rooms in England.

According to the website, the bedrooms in the house are said to be ‘perfect for your wedding night,’ a statement which they follow with a mischievous three dots…

Harewood House (Pemberley)

Harewood House, also in north Yorkshire, is the home of the Earl and Countess of Harewood (two people!) In 2009, the house won Enjoy England’s Large Visitor Attraction of the Year, so expect plenty to do if you have the good fortune to be able to visit the property. The building was constructed in the middle of the 18th Century, from the ill-gotten proceeds of the West Indian sugar trade, and sits in a landscape garden designed by ‘Capability’ Brown.

You can tour the house for its interiors, galleries and tearooms, and also visit the kitchen and servants’ quarters under the stairs. Outside, there is a bird garden, containing over 100 species including penguins, and an obligatory adventure playground for kids.

There is also an impressive array of events, from drive-in movies to a visit from the Moscow State Circus, and regular exhibitions. Weddings are also possible for the financially more generously endowed. The standard entry price for adults is eleven pounds.

Here is the website.

Bramham Biggin (Longbourn)

Bramham Biggin, a house on the grand Bramham Park estate, plays Longbourn in Lost in Austen. The site had been used since medieval times as a monestry and has housed various families, including that of MP Charles Allenson. In the 19th Century the house was used as a college, and then returned to its former use as a residence. At the time of the filming of Lost in Austen, the house was completely stripped bare, given the filmmakers maximum freedom to use the interiors as they wished.

For details of the estate, see the website link under Netherfield (Bramham Park.)

Bramham Park (Netherfield)

Bramham Park is another house laid open to visitors and boasting a range of attractions and events. The West Yorkshire house was built in 1698 and its landscape was laid over the following 30 years by the appropriately entitled 1st Lord Bingley, Robert Benson. The focus of the property is the garden. ‘Bramham Park is a grand and unusual house,” wrote historian Nikolaus Pevsner, cited on the house’s website, ‘but its gardens are grander and even more unusual.’

It was designed as a summer residence only, which explains its relatively modest size in relation to the spectacular grounds. The pond at Bramham Park is also used for the Pemberley lake scene with Amanda and Mr Darcy.

To visit, you’ll need to make an appointment but it’s only four pounds for adults and two pounds for concession tickets.

Here is Bramham Park’s website.

Your stately friend,

Lizzy