Jane Austen's men. Who's top of the slap list?

[CurlewKate]

Not the obvious ones, like Mr Collins or Walter Elliott, but the slightly less obvious ones. At the moment, mine are:

Sir Thomas Bertram
James Moreland (although he is such a wonderful, completely timeless character!)
John Dashwood.

Oh yes , The Absolute Mr Collins... Brilliant

One critic I read years ago pointed out that we don't learn Col Brandon's first name - indicating that JA was as uncommitted to this marriage as a plot point as pretty much all subsequent readers and critics have been. We know all the names of all the main male characters in her books, but not his.

I also love the scene where John and Fanny Dashwood talk down his 'father's last request to me I should assist his widow and her daughters' from giving them £3,000 to the occasional gift of fish or game in season...

Laska2Meryls · Today 20:08
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Col Brandon .. god, he's wet.. mooning over the insufferable Marianne...( Although admittedly it'll be some time before I get over Alan Rickman in those riding boots”

Sorry, I think Col. Brandon is perfect (though admittedly I’d think Shrek was too were he played by the delectable Mr. Rickman. Tbf, though, I loved the character before the film. Strong and stable 😁).
I always thought it a great shame that he and Elinor didn’t get together. They were so well suited.
I always found Marianne wet 🤷‍♀️

No, there's no excuse whatsoever for Willoughby. If he didn't want to be socially ruined then he shouldn't have seduced, impregnated and abandoned a vulnerable teenage girl. He's actually worse than Wickham.

Slapping be damned, I wish Brandon had shot him.

David Bamber - there will never be a better Mr Collins...

And yes, Col Brandon in the book - has nothing in common with Marianne but doesn't care because she's soo purty... 🙄 But Alan Rickman in riding boots... Humunuhumunuh... beats Colin F in his wet shirt any day for me...

@MrsSkylerWhite Yes, Col Brandon was much better suited to Elinor - especially in the Emma Thompson film where I could not get my head around her and Hugh Grant...

Charles Musgrove. Proposes to Anne who declines so he promptly proposes to her sister. Who wouldn’t want such a catch.

I think the fathers in the books are that great tbh.

edit wording

maxelly - have you watched ‘Emma’ with Mr Woodhouse portrayed
by the sublime Bill Nighy, a masterclass in subtle manoeuverings.

Mr Elton. Not exactly a villain but a complete superficial, selfish waste of space who manages to find someone even more ghastly than he is.

William Elliot from Persuasion - the charming, distant cousin due to inherit who comes sniffing around. Anne never quite trusts him, thankfully, and Mrs Smith warns against him. He's a sinister, scheming character, not quite fleshed out enough for me on the page.

MarthaDunstable · Today 20:24
MrsSkylerWhite · Today 20:01

Willoughby. Though I guess he was as trapped by the importance of financial status as the women of his time.
No, there's no excuse whatsoever for Willoughby. If he didn't want to be socially ruined then he shouldn't have seduced, impregnated and abandoned a vulnerable teenage girl. He's actually worse than Wickham.
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Slapping be damned, I wish Brandon had shot him.

Well, but, maybe, what if they?

Actually, fair enough 😁

Obviously Willhoughby, big bastard. In that novel many men are slappable, not obvious being Mr Palmer and Robert Ferrars.

Captain Tilney for sure in Northanger, Mr Pryce for not giving Fanny the time of day when she returns home after a decade and only caring for his ons.

I can't see Henry Crawford anywhere? He's a creep, and he enjoys playing with women's emotions.

I was surprised that it took so long for Willoughby to crop up in the thread!

Nominate that twit who was disappointed twice in his amateur theatricals and then eloped with Julia. Mr Yates, I think? He sounded like a twerp.

On the flip side, I felt sorry for Colonel Fitzwilliam, he seemed sweet and keen on Lizzie. Also Fanny's brother William was adorable.

But also Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey. He is SO patronising to Catherine and is clearly laughing at her behind her back half the time.
And probably a cross-dresser, given his alarmingly detailed knowledge of muslins?

I read Henry Tilney as gay.

St John Rivers in Jane Eyre. I always thought he would have damp hands.

umm…

who’s going to tell her?

Alan Rickman managed to make the odious Mr Slope (Barchester Chronicles) and Professor Snape (Harry Potter) and sundry villains appealing - Colonel Brandon can't have been any challenge at all! 😄

#casualviolenceagainstmen

Do better people!

Mr Palmer, Charlotte's husband. He is so openly contemptuous of her. I know he shouldn't have married such a giggling idiot, but having done so, he could have made some attempt at being reasonably pleasant.
Obviously slimy Mr Collins, and Willoughby.

I know it’s been said before but David Bamber’s portrayal of Mr Collins is imo complete and utter perfection. Almost matched by Ciaran Hinds Captain Wentworth ‘you pierce my soul’ 😍😍

So true about DB's Mr Collins, I get the creeps even thinking about him.

And you can really see why Lizzie doesn’t want to marry him.

Definitely!
But with middle age I can see why Charlotte did. When I was younger I thought.... Noooooo, don't marry that sleezeball... but very few women in those days had the luxury of marrying for love.