Pride and Prejudice: Chapters 58-61

In this episode, we read the final chapters of Pride and Prejudice. We talk about the dialogue in the final proposal scene, and more generally about proposals in Jane Austen; Mr Bennet’s response to the news, and also Mrs Bennet’s; what the final chapter, and James Austen-Leigh’s Memoir, tells us about what happens next to the characters; the passing reference to the “restoration of peace”; and how the closing sentence is far less memorable than the opening sentence.

We discuss the character of Mr Bennet, then Ellen talks about some social changes that happened after the book finished, and Harriet looks at how the adaptations finish – with the surprising discovery that a lot of them give the last word to Mr or Mrs Bennet.

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1 thought on “<em>Pride and Prejudice</em>: Chapters 58-61”

  1. Thanks so much for this enjoyable and interesting discussion of P&P.
    Have been listening with my son (surely the only young man in his early twenties who thinks no other author comes close to writing as well as JA!).
    We are looking forward to whatever novel you will be looking at next.
    My favourite has always been Persuasion, his is Mansfield Park, but we both agree Emma is the best crafted. We both have a love for Northanger Abbey because of its tongue-in-cheek humour. And if you decide on S&S, we are agreeable to this too. The beginning of that novel describing the decisions of the abominable John Dashwoods is one of the best JA ever wrote.

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