For the Love of Mr Darcy - Jane Austen Quickstep Travel Guide

My real purpose was to see you, and to judge, if I could, whether I might ever hope to make you love me.
Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

This is one of the most famous lines side by Mr Darcy in Jane Austen’s most successful novel Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen had a clever way of writing her characters as she demonstrates with Mr Darcy. As a reader, you share Elizabeth’s initial sentiment that he is pompous and unkind, and in total contrast to his friend Charles Bingley. By the end of the novel, you agree with Elizabeth that he is actually compassionate and generous as he helps her sister Lidia avoid a scandal with Wickham.

Jane does give us hints along the way to her own measure of the man. ‘Mr Darcy they had only seen in church‘ demonstrates how religious Mr Darcy is ( a tick in Jane’s box), and if he was at church on this day, he would have been there twice as it was Good Friday.

Jane’s Mr Darcy is very rich

Mr Darcy’s fortune was around £10,000 a year, which makes him a modern day multi-millionaire and then some. No wonder Mrs Bennet cries with joy, ‘I can think of nothing else! Ten thousand a year and very likely more! ’Tis as good as a Lord!’

To reaffirm this wealth and superiority, Jane cleverly chose the name ‘Fitzwilliam Darcy’ for her hero. Readers would have been familiar with the wealthy Fitzwilliam family whose property was twice the size of Buckingham Palace. They would have also known the ’Darcy’ name in the form of ‘D’Arcy’ meaning ‘of Arcy’ in French.

It was brought over by the Normans when William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066. This lineage was very wealthy and had what we would term old money.

Jane Austen’s Own Mr Darcy

People like to think that Jane based Mr Darcy on Tom Lefroy, a man she met at her friends house one Christmas. She fell in love, although her status and lack of fortune meant it would never be a match, and he was sent away to continue his studies, marrying a short time later he moved back to Ireland.

First Impressions

Fourteen years later in 1811, Jane began revising First Impressions which was finally published as Pride and Prejudice on 28 January 1813. Jane wrote of her excitement in a letter to Cassandra, ‘my own darling Child has arrived from London.’ Miss Benn lived a few cottages away in Chawton village, and as she was so poor, the Austen ladies often invited her to tea. They read the novel aloud and Miss Benn never knew that Jane was the author.

The novel sold so well a second edition was printed in the Autumn of the same year, and a third in 1817. The reading public adored Elizabeth Bennet and it was a huge success.

Jane was a great believer in love and marriage, even though she never married herself. To her niece Fanny she wrote, “To you I shall say, as I have often said before, do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last.”

A modern Mr Darcy

Mr Darcy at Hyde Park in the Serpentine Gallery

Jane spent a lot of time walking in Hyde Park and along the banks of the Serpentine in London when visiting her brother Henry, which is where a 12-foot Mr Darcy was placed.

It was to celebrate the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice featuring Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, in the most popular version of Jane’s novel. Written by Andrew Davies (of recent Sanditon fame) it sold 100,000 video box sets whilst on air, and 10 million people watched the final episode. People are amazed to discover that the lake scene where Darcy takes a dip before striding away in his clinging wet shirt and bumping into his future bride is not in the book.

The filming took six months, and Colin fell in love with his co-star Elizabeth, played by Jennifer Ehle.

The fibre glass statue has been moved to Lyme Park in Cheshire where most of the TV series was filmed.

Delicious Mr Darcy

To celebrate 25 years of the BBC’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s most popular novel, Pride and Prejudice, a 6ft cake was unveiled to the public at National Trust property Lyme Park in Cheshire, of Colin Firth fame. Michelle Wibowo, worked on the creation of Darcy’s cake counterpart; a process which took over 200 hours.

Nobody was keen on eating him, and he had to laid down and packaged into small, bite-sized pieces!

The other Mr Darcy

In the film edition of Pride and Prejudice, the role of Mr Darcy was played by Matthew Macfayden. He played alongside Keira Knightley as Elizabeth, and the film has been a great success. To celebrate, a bust of Matthew as Mr Darcy is presented in the hallway of Chatsworth House, often used as a film location and some say as inspiration for Pemberley.

A Real Looker

So what did Mr Darcy look like? A special FBI profiler created an image of Mr Darcy from descriptions and research. He produced this image, which some say makes Mr Darcy look too old, however, his hair is probably powdered as was the fashion in the regency period.