Judging a Darcy is like judging a fruit cake. He has to be easy on the eye, crusty on the outside, soft in the middle, extraordinarily rich, and not particularly fond of dancing. OK, the simile doesn’t quite stretch but you get the idea.

Here are the nominations:

William Darcy from Bride and Prejudice (2003) – Martin Henderson

William Darcy played by Martin Henderson

Bio: An American hotelier who arrives in India harboring stereotypes of the local culture, akin to Jane Austen’s Darcy’s preconceptions about life outside elite society.
Positives: Classic Hollywood good looks.
Negatives: Perhaps a little too “new-money” for Darcy. The real Darcy wasn’t merely wealthy, of course, and as a gentleman wasn’t one for holding down a job either, whereas this chap is never off his laptop.

Will Darcy from Pride and Prejudice: A Latter Day Comedy (2003) – Orlando Seal

Will Darcy played by Orlando Seal

Bio: A British publisher who receives a manuscript from a certain Elizabeth Bennet, he is initially contemptuous of Miss Bennet’s social circle, before inevitably love begins to blossom.
Positives: His Englishness definitely helps him to appear arrogant and superior at the beginning (I can say this, I’m English. Americans, please don’t leave comments agreeing with me!”)
Negatives: He featured in an episode of the comedy series ‘The IT Crowd,’ in which his name was Peter File. See the YouTube clip below. It’s just impossible to take him seriously after this. In Pride and Prejudice; A Latter Day Comedy, he also has the misfortune to be in a pretty bad film, which doesn’t help matters.

Mark Darcy from Bridget Jones Diary (2001) – Colin Firth

Mark Darcy played by Colin Firth

Bio: Mark Darcy is a stuffy, yet bizarrely well-connected human rights lawyer, who bumps into Bridget at a new year party and eventually becomes a rival of Daniel Cleaver, Bridget’s boss, for her affections.
Positives: He has a natural advantage of course, being for many people the “real” Darcy due to his fabulous performance in the BBC’s 1995 series. His turn in Bridget Jones, in which his head appears to be a perfectly good shape (regardless of Miss Amanda Price’s allegations) is very different of course, but still very Darcy.
Negatives: He is, of course, as socially awkward as Jane Austen’s Fitzwilliam Darcy but lacks the sheltered, aristocratic upbringing in comparison with Bridget. In fact, everyone in the movie is more or less equally posh.

Fitzwilliam Darcy in Lost in Austen (2008) – Elliot Cowan

Elliot Cowan as Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy

Bio: Cowan plays the ‘real’ Darcy from the book, of course, but his life is knocked off course by the arrival of Miss Amanda Price from modern-day London. Amanda seeks to bring Elizabeth and Darcy together, yet slowly the two become drawn to one another instead.
Positives: Cowan is suitably tall, handsome and yet superficially ‘toxic,’ then turns on the charm rather delightfully as the series progresses.
Negatives: Perhaps a little angrier and pricklier than Darcy as portrayed in the book and the major adaptations. Not just cold or insensitive at the beginning, this Darcy is baldly unpleasant.

My Two Cents

My winner has to be Elliot Cowan from Lost in Austen. He takes Darcy to the extremes of insufferability and affability, and somehow binds it all together into one consistent character. He is handsome, of course, but not in a pretty-boy way, and has great chemistry with Miss Amanda Price.

What do you think? Aside from the Darcys of the major, straight adaptations, who is the best of the rest?

On their travels, Elizabeth begins to wonder why her new husband hasn’t visited her in her bedchamber. She starts to fear the worst; perhaps he is regretting having married her. Eventually we learn the real reason behind his reluctance to… ahem… visit her. Unsurprisingly, it turns out to be something rather more sinister. Again, can you guess what it is?

‘Mr Darcy Vampyre’ is a fun read, with lots of romance, atmospheric prose and pulse-raising scenes. Not many Pride and Prejudice characters are included in the novel, with only Elizabeth and Darcy followed throughout, and the strongest supporting role given to Lady Catherine de Bourgh. However, Elizabeth and Darcy’s characters are written with love and careful attention. Elizabeth is as delightful as can be expected, given the terrible journey on which she is taken, and Darcy is as complicated as ever – perhaps more so, given the addition of the whole man-beast problem.

The sensual prose immediately – and I do mean from the first page – sets it apart stylistically from Jane Austen’s novel. There is more detail in Amanda Grange’s description of the view from Elizabeth’s window than Jane Austen gives of Pemberley, Rosings and the Peak district all together. The plot is also very linear in comparison with the complex, interweaving storylines of Pride and Prejudice. Letters are used, and do become important later in the book, but they generally serve just to recap what we have already learned, rather than to shove the story along. Furthermore, as you’d expect from any book with ‘vampyre’ in the title, it’s generally a lot darker, more emotionally direct and more hot-blooded than the ‘light and bright and sparkling’ Regency novel.

These aren’t really criticisms, however, but readers who love Jane Austen for the language, the light, ironic touch and the labyrinthine plot might not find much to enjoy here. However, if you are interested primarily in the two main characters and you don’t mind a little absurdity, then you should find ‘Mr Darcy, Vampyre’ perfectly agreeable. True Austen experts might enjoy the book as an homage to the Gothic novels that Jane Austen herself loved, but I’m not sure that casual Austen fans and lovers of general horror will find their bloodthirst quenched. It’s not particularly gory and it’s not until the final third of the book that it’s completely clear what’s going on (unless you had the foresight to read the novel’s title, that is!) so there are sure to be plenty more horrible horrors available, but for a light-hearted play on Pride and Prejudice, this is a pleasantly distracting read.

A 1980 adaptation fan video set to Chopin

This romantic video makes the 1980 version look quite cinematic, with lots of lingering looks, smiles and of course stiff upper-lips from David Rintoul.

Pride & Prejudice – Harry Potter Style

A very cleverly edited Pride and Prejudice trailer using video footage of Harry Potter.

Pride and Prejudice – She’s Like The Wind

We have featured this video already on this site, but in view of Patrick Swayze’s tragic passing it seems right to remember once again at his most awesome. Here is Pride and Prejudice 2005 set to Swayze’s ‘She’s Like the Wind’ from Dirty Dancing.

Pride and Prejudice Trailer Spoof

I don’t want to write too much about this for fear of spoiling the quite horrible surprise! This is my personal favorite…

Lost In Austen- Amanda & Darcy- She’s A Lady

So Miss Amanda Price of Hammersmith might have had Jane Austen spinning in her grave ‘like a cat in a tumble-dryer,’ but she still won the heart of Mr Darcy in Lost in Austen with her radical manners and quirky modern ways. Here is Lost in Austen set to Tom Jones’ ‘She’s a Lady.’

So there we have it. Delightfully absurd and quite absurdly delightful. Once again, please let us know about your favorites too. Also, please don’t forget to check out Mitchell and Webb’s Disco Darcy sketch, entirely unrivaled in its ridiculousnesses, for a guaranteed giggle.

Click here for the BBC 1980 version.
Click here for the BBC 1995 dramatization.
Click here for the 2005 movie.

We join the movie just as Lady Catherine de Bourgh has visited Elizabeth, acting bizarrely as Mr Darcy’s ‘ambassador,’ to learn for herself if Elizabeth’s love for him is uninfluenced by his tremendous fortune. Lady Catherine has decided that Lizzy is right for him after all, and Darcy is enthused and emboldened by the news. Outside Longbourn, Lady Catherine leaves in her carriage, instructing Mr Darcy to enter the house.

INT. LONGBOURN – DAY

Darcy enters Longbourn and is met by Mrs Bennet.

DARCY:
How do you do, Mrs Bennet?

MRS BENNET:
Well, this is an honor! First Lady Catherine and now you.

DARCY:
I was travelling with my aunt and I thought I would give myself the pleasure…

ELIZABETH (OFF SCREEN):
Jane!

Elizabeth enters the hall.

ELIZABETH:
Mama, I can’t find Jane anywhere. (Noticing Mr Darcy) Oh!

Mr Darcy bows and walks to her.

DARCY:
How do you do, Miss Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH:
How do you do?

MRS BENNET:
(Interrupting) Jane is somewhere in the garden, I believe.

DARCY:
Oh, Miss Jane. I have a message for her from the Bingleys. (Gesturing to go outside) Should we… should we… see if we could… find her…

ELIZABETH:
Why yes, let’s do that.

DARCY:
(To Mrs Bennet) Would you excuse us?

MRS BENNET:
Very gladly, Mr Darcy.

LONGBOURN GARDEN. INT – DAY

Elizabeth is walking ahead of Mr Darcy. He calls to her.

DARCY:
Miss Bennet. I have a confession to make. I didn’t tell the exact truth, I’m afraid, about the message from the Bingleys.

ELIZABETH:
You mean they didn’t send one?

DARCY:
They didn’t send one for the good reason that Charles Bingley had every intention of bringing it himself.

ELIZABETH:
Himself?

DARCY:
Yes, he came back to Netherfield last night. I was rather expecting to see him here this afternoon.

Darcy looks around and spots Jane in the garden. She is seated as Mr Bingley walks to her. Mr Bingley kisses Jane’s hands. Elizabeth and Darcy watch.

ELIZABETH:
Oh, Mr Darcy, this is your doing.

DARCY:
Shall I tell you who is really responsible for your sister’s happiness? Caroline Bingley?

They walk to a bench.

ELIZABETH:
Miss Bingley?

They sit together.

DARCY:
She sent her brother back by dwelling on all the reasons she should stay away. I only approved a decision that he’d already taken on his own account.

ELIZABETH:
Mr Darcy, there’s something else… I hardly know how to put it into words. What you did for Lydia…

DARCY:
I, but I assure you I did nothing Miss Bennet.

ELIZABETH:
Lady Catherine was not of that opinion.

DARCY:
What? But I never gave her leave to tell you that.

ELIZABETH:
Gave her leave? Do you have to say that Lady Catherine…

DARCY:
I… wanted to know if I would be welcome. She came as my ambassador.

ELIZABETH:
Your ambassador? I never imagined that that was the language of diplomacy.

DARCY:
(Laughs) You know she likes you in spite of the language.

ELIZABETH:
Me?

DARCY:
She really does.

ELIZABETH:
I wish I’d known it. I wouldn’t have been so rude.

DARCY:
But that was what she liked. People flatter her so much, she enjoys an occasional change.

ELIZABETH:
I’m afraid I gave her a good change this afternoon!

DARCY:
She went away delighted. You only confirmed the good opinion she formed of you at Rosings.

ELIZABETH:
I don’t know what to say or think, except that you must allow me to thank you for what you did for Lydia, and if the thanks were known to the rest of my family I should not merely have my own gratitude to express.

DARCY:
If you must thank me, let it be for yourself alone. Whatever I did, I thought only of you.

ELIZABETH:
Oh, Mr Darcy, when I think of how I misjudged you, the horrible things I said, I am so ashamed.

DARCY:
Oh no, it is I who should be ashamed -of my arrogance, my stupid pride, of all except one thing: I am not ashamed of having loved you. Elizabeth, dare I ask you again. Elizabeth, dear beautiful Lizzy…

They kiss.

Mrs Bennet is peering out of the window. Mr Bennet is in the background.

MRS BENNET:
Lord, bless my soul! Mr Bennet, Mr Bennet!

Mr Bennet comes to the window.

MR BENNET:
Miracles will never cease, Mrs Bennet.

MRS BENNET:
Mr Darcy! Who would have believed it? Oh, my sweetest, sweetest Lizzy. What pin money she will have, what jewels, what carriages. Jane’s is nothing to hers, absolutely nothing. Oh, and such a charming man. I do hope he’ll overlooked my having disliked him so much. Oh, dear, dear Mr Darcy, a house in town, ten thousand pounds a year. Of course, poor Jane will only have five. Oh, I wonder if there’s any dish he’s particularly fond of. I’ll go and…

As Mr and Mrs Bennet reach the door, they hear music. Mary is singing.

INT. LONGBOURN DRAWING ROOM – DAY.

Mary is singing and playing the piano, accompanied by a gentleman on the flute. Next to them are Kitty and another gentleman, who stroll through the doors together into the garden.

The eyes of Mary and the flutist meet.

MRS BENNET:
Mr Bennet! Mr Bennet!

MR BENNET:
Well, perhaps it’s lucky we didn’t drown any of them at birth, my dear.

MRS BENNET:
Mr Bennet, you must find out what money they have. Colonel Foster can tell you all about Mr Denny, and Sir William knows all about Mr Witherington. You must go at once, Mr Bennet, this very afternoon. Ah! Three of them married, and the other two just tottering on the brink.

Mrs Bennet closes the door.

So, there we have it. It doesn’t look so much on the page, so don’t forget you can watch the whole movie on our site for free. The highlights for me are (in no particular order):

1. 1. Lizzy and Darcy’s kiss on the bench. Despite his sweet, genteel manner and soft voice, Olivier’s kiss almost takes poor Greer Garson’s head off! It’s a proper man’s kiss from the 1940s, when men were men and men… erm… couldn’t really kiss properly.
2. 2. The wonderful wartime humor, for example Lizzy’s joke about the language of diplomacy, delivered as if for a live music hall audience.
3. 3. The moment in which Darcy ‘notices’ Jane and Mr Bingley. They are in plain view, only a few meters away when he spots them.

What do you think about this ending? It’s surely the least faithful of the major adaptations (unless you want to count Lost in Austen!) but definitely also one of the most fun. It’s a shame that some of the nicest phrases and lines from the novel haven’t been included, or have been altered for the worse, and that some charming scenes are missing, but it’s still a great movie in itself.

Please let me know your thoughts!

This could be you!

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

Luckington Court

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.

Sudbury Hall

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.

Chatsworth House

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.

Belton House

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.

Burghley House

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.

Basildon Park

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

Mrs Bennet - 'a real ball-breaker'

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…

Unconditional motherly love?

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.

Mrs Bennet pimping her daughters

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!

Mrs Bennet in defence!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?