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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Mr Collins’
Top 10 Mr Collins Pictures
Here are My Pride and Prejudice’s all time top 10 pictures of the ‘oddity’ that is Mr Collins. In no particular order and from all the major screen and TV adaptations we have Tom Hollander (2005), David Bamber (1995), Malcolm Rennie(1980), Melville Cooper (1940) and Guy Henry (Lost in Austen).
Fordyce’s Sermons; Mr Collins’ Favorite Book
hen Mr. Collins comes to stay at Longbourn, Mr. Bennet, finding the reverend ‘as absurd as he had hoped,’ mischievously asks his guest to read aloud to his daughters. Mr. Collins readily assents, and:
…after some deliberation he chose Fordyce’s Sermons. Lydia gaped as he opened the volume, and before he had, with very monotonous solemnity, [...]
Rewriting Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice Adaptations
The comical character Mr Collins could not be explained more explicitly by Austen in Pride and Prejudice:
- ‘A tall, heavy-looking young man of five-and-twenty’
- ‘His air was grave and stately, and his manner very formal’
- ‘altogether a mix of pride and obsequiousness, self importance and humility’
However, casting directors seem unwilling to follow Austen’s description in [...]