The Tide of Popularity
First impressions prove to be quite misleading in the case of handsome, disagreeable Mr Darcy.
1813
First impressions prove to be quite misleading in the case of handsome, disagreeable Mr Darcy.
1813
The Bennet family’s near-neighbours, Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy, make an appearance at their first dance in Meryton, and public opinion upon them and their London relatives swings bewilderingly to and fro.
by Jane Austen (1775-1817)
MR. Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women, with an air of decided fashion.
His brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely looked the gentleman; but his friend Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year.*
The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud; to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.
by Jane Austen (1775-1817)
That is, investments yielding £10,000 profit each year, equivalent to more than half a million pounds today in terms of purchasing power, and giving him the social status enjoyed today by someone with an annual income in the region of £10m. See Measuring Worth.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate her ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.