Say you have to spend the rest of your life married to one of Miss Austen’s delightful creations…which one (you can only pick one, this is Regency England) do you go with?
Don’t feel limited to the starring roles. If you want to run off with Willoughby or Mr. Collins be my guest.
After careful consideration, I pick Frederick Wentworth. Mr. Darcy scores points for ardency (and being portrayed by Colin Firth) but ultimately he is too provincial. Wentworth has seen the world and is the likeliest to take his wife on some real adventures. He is also the only self-made man, the others all dependent on inheritance and patronage.
I’m inclined to agree with Wentworth, for all the reasons you mention, but I’d hate to cut out poor Anne. Colonel Fitzwilliam seems like a decent sort, and he is, to the best of my recollection, single.
I would probably have a crush from a distance on Edward Ferrers, but we would both be too shy to say anything to each other.
Wentworth, definitely. Any man who can write That Letter (…you pierce my soul…) and love someone as good and worthy as Anne gets my pledge, and I’ve always wanted to sail on one of those tall mast ships.
Darcy is too formal, Brandon is lovely but might wind up comparing me with poor-tragic-dead Whatsherface. Bingley is cute as pie, but a little dense and far too malleable and Knightly would be like dating my older brother.
I’d swoop in and marry Mr. Bennet before he could get stuck with the twit. Okay, Elizabeth and Jane Bennet would never be born, but of all the men, he’d suit my temperament best. Fond of books and good things, witty, and not terribly bothered with ambition. Of course, I’d hope heartily for a son… and at least educate my daughters to the standards expected by polite society.
I’m in love with Elizabeth Bennet, but if I had to pick one of the guys then I’d probably go with Henry Tilney. He seems a lot more fun than most of the other heroes, he reads novels and has some good jokes, and he can dance. He also knows an awful lot about muslin (!), which is more than I can say for myself, so I figure he could help keep me presentable. And if he ever wanted to wear my gowns, as I always rather suspected he would, I’d be understanding about it.
ETA: I also think I could make a decent go of getting Frank Churchill to straighten out, but he may be incorrigible.
True, but I always thought Edmund should marry Mary for the same reason.
Maybe there’s scope for an alternate Jane Austen history here where they marry the Crawfords and then have have a torrid affair with each other scandalizing society and stealing Maria’s thunder
I would have a different answer each day of the week. Alas, my first husband was more like Wickham than anyone mentioned so far. Of all of them my husband is most like Capt. Wentworth, and our story reads a little like that (we were together years ago, then weren’t, then were again) only, without the part where he’s amassed a great fortune in the interim. He does have a sterling character, and is quite dashing, despite never having been in uniform.
