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Original poster

To think Marianne shouldn't have married Colonel Brandon?

440 replies

squoosh · 21/08/2013 23:45

Okay Willoughby was a cad and a bounder and took himself out of the running, but I do think that Brandon swooped in to take advantage of her rain induced fever which had left her a bit dazed and compliant.

It's a bit creepy that he falls in love with her because she reminds him of his long lost, 'fallen', dead love. Plus he's a bit intense, the laughs wouldn't be forthcoming and I'll warrant he expected her to do all kinds of dark shit in the bedroom.

Ideally she'd have had another couple of seasons in London and met lots of nice suitors or maybe even nipped across to Pride and Prejudice and married that nice Colonel Fitzwilliam.

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ThursdayLast · 22/08/2013 20:45

I'm so Grin that Persuasion is getting so much appreciation, I feel quite protective of it (so daft, I'm fully aware) and feel like P&P and S&S get all the glory, despite not being anything like as truly romantic.

I will look into this Amanda Root type adaptation, sounds positive.

I've only read Death Comes To Pemberly...I thought it started quite well but I seem to recall physically scoffing near the end. I can't even remember the plot now.

I remembered one thing I liked about the RPJ version and that was the portrayal of Elizabeth Elliot by ???? She was hilarious.

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squoosh · 22/08/2013 20:54

Thursday this is the version of Persuasion starring Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root.

It's glorious.

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NuggetofPurestGreen · 22/08/2013 21:02

Now I want to go and read Persuasion again immediately. And then Emma, P&P, NA, S&S and MP. And the juvenilia. [dreams of being rich and being able to stay home reading all day]

marzipananimal · 22/08/2013 21:14

Persuasion is my favourite too! Although I love all her books. Has anyone else read 'Sanditon'? Started by JA but completed by 'another lady'. I don't think it's in print any more but my parents have a copy and I love it too

bigbuttons · 22/08/2013 21:19

Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root's persuasion is glorious, I can watch it over and over. I think Persuasion is my favourite.

RenterNomad · 22/08/2013 21:35

Sorry, Remus, the wiki explanation sounds crazy and is impenetrable if you stat cold, but I meant the sort of analysis where you take each factor and work out every single other factor that goes with it, and for how many other players. It helps you work out which characteristics "statistically" go together: Keira Knightley and zombies!

A bit of a tangent, but I've just found a great series with plenty of zombies which, are, moreover, not at all gratuitous (like the P&P&Z ones): they're a deliberate tactic by a retreating Mongol Horde, to ruin Europe, a bit like the Romans sowing salt at Carthage! Iron Seas steampunk

joanofarchitrave · 22/08/2013 21:45

The most appealing of Jane Austen's men for me are Henry Tilney, Frank Churchill and Henry Crawford. Mr Bingley was sweetened very well by Crispin Thing in the 90s adaptation but in the book he is clearly Niceish but mainly Rich but Dim. I like that Austen again and again writes very unappealing main characters, with most of the attraction centred in a rogues' gallery of wronguns. I mean, Catherine Morland - thick as two short ones, easily led, 17 years old? What a catch. Metrosexual Henry is fab, whereas I still would like to be led astray by the moral black hole that is Frank Churchill.

I like Sanditon to some extent and also Jane Fairfax,both quite old continuations, but both are really quite dull - Austen's greatness is her dialogue and her author's voice IMO. The most recent (TV) version of Sense and Sensibility was utterly diabolical as the screenwriter decided to make it short enough for a film by removing all the dialogue. FGS.

RenterNomad · 22/08/2013 22:19

Oooh, yes, I like Henry Tilney (NOT Crawford); I don't think he's that dim, either! That teasing about chatting inanely as though they were in a novel is clever, and he gains a moral dimension at the end, when his silly flirting turns serious, and he stands by Catherine. Ahhhh!

I don't get Frank Churchill at all!

HumphreyCobbler · 22/08/2013 22:28

One of the characters in a Margaret Drabble novel (I think it is The Waterfall) says that she feels sorry for Emma having to sleep with Mr Knightly and that she would have done better to catch Frank Churchill if she could.

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squoosh · 22/08/2013 22:33

NO to Frank Churchill, he's so slithery. Ew.

Mr Elton would have been into S&M.

Does no one else fancy Tom Bertram?

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HumphreyCobbler · 22/08/2013 22:41

Can't say Tom Bertram did it for me. But, although MP is my favourite, I don't think any of the blokes are that fanciable.

Shrugged · 22/08/2013 22:41

Squoosh, you should read that rather good Mansfield Park sequel I mentioned up the thread. It features Tom Bertram quite centrally and sympathetically, and has him fall in love with someone who had designs on him in MP.

But no, never fancied him. Henry Crawford is the only half way fanciable man in MP, and he's a bit of an arrogant slimeball. But better than Dull But Worthy Edmund (dear God, did he crack a smile once in the entire timespan of the novel? Imagine his sermons), or the appalling Mr Rushworth or Mr Yates.

Original poster
squoosh · 22/08/2013 22:46

Thanks shrugged, I think I'll give MP another read, it has been years, and then give the sequel a try.

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ThursdayLast · 22/08/2013 22:46

Thanks for the link squoosh...just ordered it, I'm excited to see it now!

I really can't think of any other male I'd fancy, although they all seem plausible while I'm reading. I think in real life Darcy would have been just enough of a wanker to put me off completely.

They're all into secret engagements, or being old and father figurey. Or just cads. I agree with previous poster saying Bingley is basically rich and nice but dim. I'd probs end up with him...

RenterNomad · 22/08/2013 22:48

Oh, I think Fanny's brother William is going to be a cracker... if he stays off the booze that did for their father's fanciability, that is.

ThursdayLast · 22/08/2013 22:52

I also like the KK P&P, don't even mind KK as Lizzie. I find them both annoying but likeable so works for me!

And Matthew whatshisface makes a good Darcy too. Is Lizzie popular today because she seems more like what it is to be a woman now? Does anyone know how she was received at the time?

I have sometimes freaked myself out a bit trying to imagine a world where P&P was never written. Or Romeo and Juliet. Two stories everyone knows even if they don't know they know...

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 22/08/2013 23:03

Thanks, Nomad.

No to Tom Bertram but I do hope to have a dog named after him one day.

Henry Tilney isn't stupid, by any means. He's got quite a clever wit. I liked this guy a lot as him.

God no to Bingley...He has a library of books and doesn't even know what's in there. He probably ordered them by the yard. At least Darcy is well-read and has worked hard to build up the library that his family had already started. And he writes a darn good letter.

Original poster
squoosh · 22/08/2013 23:06

As I said way upthread sharing a bottle of port fireside with the intellectually unencumbered Mr Bingley wouldn't be too unpleasant a task. He'd keep you entertained.

Colonel Brandon would be looking at you mournfully and talking solemnly of his dead love.

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MsMarple · 22/08/2013 23:08

I'm not sure what I thought about Colonel Brandon when I read the book as, after seeing David Morrissey wander about the countryside looking manly, all rational thought went out of the window! Marianne was lucky to get him.

RenterNomad · 22/08/2013 23:10

He is an e-pistol indeed! And didn't he duel with Wickham as well (epistles at dawn!), or am I mixing him up with someone else?

Colonel Brandon v Willoughby would have been an interesting duel, too! Please someone say they fought?

MsMarple · 22/08/2013 23:26

Brandon did fight with Willoughby - because he got Brandon's young ward pregnant. The book doesn't show this, but Brandon tells Elinor about it briefly when he is telling her what Willoughby is really like.

Happily the film versions did manage to show us some pistols in the mist :0)

GrandstandingBlueTit · 22/08/2013 23:58

I don't see Wickham as necessarily fabulously good looking.

Lizzie didn't fancy him because he was good looking, per se. She was swept away by her fantastic first impression of his superficially charming personality. Just as she was turned off by her terrible first impression of Darcy. That's the entire point of the story.

Lizzie is bright, yes. But the entire premise of the book is built around forming very quick impressions of two very different men and being wrong on both counts.

All it took for Wickham to appeal to her was to be personalable, charming, not unattractive, and, crucially, to - seemingly - 'see through' Mr Darcy. They were united in their disdain for him.

GibberTheMonkey · 23/08/2013 00:28

I want them to make another lost in Austen (different book) Ok it makes me a heathen but it was fun.
I would have run off with Wickham under those circumstances.

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squoosh · 23/08/2013 00:48

I LOVED Lost in Austen!

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kickassangel · 23/08/2013 00:54

Just marking my place.

But I don't get the Alan Rickman love, far too brooding and pervy.

Tom Bertram, oh yes.