Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?

[BeaAndBen]

I’ve been enjoying P&P yet again, and reached the absolute delight of Chapter 56.

Lady Catherine’s visit to Longbourn is something I look forward to each time. She’s so utterly ghastly, and Elizabeth so resolute and devastating in her replies, that I grin through the entire section.

Are there bits of favourite books that particularly stand out to people?

Miss Pettigrew getting her makeover -“England expects….” makes me laugh every time - or maybe Anne Elliot reading Captain Wentworth’s letter?
The concept of Angels as explained to Moist von Lipwig?

Cotillion is such a great introduction, because new readers learn about the ton along with Kitty. And of course you have Lord Legerwood*, who is one of my favourite minor characters and the Heyer man I'd probably most like to marry. Freddy flooring Jack is wonderfully satisfying.

For those who are more resistant to the genre I recomment Venetia, because she rescues herself. She's incredibly well read, swaps witty barbs with The Wicked Baron and very much her own woman.
(And Oswald Denny's attempts at being a Byronesque hero make me laugh.)

*Actually, I'd also marry Miles Calverleigh. I like Sir Waldo Hawkridge, but I can't imagine getting amorous and saying "oh,Waldo!" so that's a bit of an impediment. Hugo'd make a great husband for a younger woman and Sir Gareth is great once he gets he head out of his ass over his previous fixation, but Miles and Lord Legerwood are the best bets.

For those who are more resistant to the genre I recommend Venetia, because she rescues herself. She's incredibly well read, swaps witty barbs with The Wicked Baron and very much her own woman.
(And Oswald Denny's attempts at being a Byronesque hero make me laugh.)

I do love the advice that he "should have got rid of the livestock first", when Venetia protests that Denny outrageously tried to kiss her while she was holding the kittens.

Agree that Elizabeth's response to Lady Catherine in her carriage outside Longbourn is one of the most devastating and satisfying mic drop moments in the whole of literature.

All my life, in my fantasy ripostes to wankers of all shades, I have aimed at it.

Another moment I remember is when Dorothea in Middlemarch is pondering whether to acquiesce to Casaubon's sickening demand that she carry on his anaemic and vain research project after his death.

I can't remember any of the details, but my heart almost stopped at the prospect that she would skewer herself in naive and pointless self sacrifice to stupid male vanity and entitlement ... and then she doesn't. Oh my god the relief.

Enjoy anyway!

“Playing the Corsair’s role in front of the Corsair himself”
I love Venetia and Damerel. I even love The Lamb.

Maybe I'm a masochist, but Mr Collins' proposal because it's such a great description of clueless pomposity, and Elizabeth's unwaivering rejection. (I recently reread P&P too)

But he has had plenty of practiceas a bell ringer In Dukes Denver throughout his life!

He admitted he was out of practice, hence the pre-real ringing with the handbells in the vicarage...

Lowering the tone a bit but two of roald Dahl's short stories

1. when someone kills their husband with a frozen leg of lamb. Then there is lovely scene where she cooks for the police (because it would be a shame to waste it) and they keep saying "the murder weapon must be here somewhere

2. an abusive husband that wants to keep his brain alive after death. So after he dies he is just a brain in a fish tank with an eye. His wife just keeps taunting him with obviously doing all the things he prevented her doing. Every day she blows smoke rings into his tank

Love The Talisman Ring as well, and Sir Tristram - 'I wish you would get it out of your head that you are living in a romantic novel'

Or words to that effect 😂 must reread, he is very fanciable. Especially not wanting conversation at breakfast.

How funny but those are the exact same two moments that stick out for me from Dahl's stories and I am fairly sure I only read the brain one once. (The leg of lamb one is quite famous I think)
I loved how the eye would narrow as she taunted him, it feels very mumsnet.

I love Murder Must Advertise.

I liked the legal details such as the info that "made WITH pears" means something different to "made OF pears".

The TV version is worth a watch. The camera work is shonky (zoom in on the catapult as It Is Significant, the boats on the Thames through the window of Charles' office are painted and the scenery rattles every time someone shuts a door), but it's still very charming.

My favourite scene from any novel is the opening one from The Yiddish Policemen's Union. So intriguing with all the hints of something strange and counterfactual going on. So noir!

I must re-read it soon.

I think it would have to be P&P for me too and whilst I love the scene you’ve mentioned, the one that really makes me snort with laughter every time is ‘There are few people in England I suppose, who have more true enjoyment of music than myself, or a better natural taste. If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.’ Partly it’s because it reminds me of my Mum 🙊

Good call. Sir Tristam who wouldn’t ride Ventre á Terre, nor cares how one would dress in a tumbril.

Nb - DP has just discovered what a tumbril is and is delighted to learn it has a specific name. If he’s not careful he’ll know what a pelisse is before long.

And he didn't believe in a Headless Horseman 😮

Another LPW devotee here. I could read Busman's Honeymoon once a month and never ever get tired of it.

I also bloody love the Christmas scene in Appassionata by Jilly Cooper, when it all goes wrong but is amazing anyway.

And from Pratchett, Granny in the maze of mirrors.

Just reading Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals. The very down to earth Glenda has learnt long words such as 'lady's boudoir' by her illicit reading of historical romances - but isn't sure what it means 😂

I hope you haven't tried champagne? it isn't that.

If it had escaped your notice, my dear Matthew, that his appalling brogue overcame him only when it had been made abundantly plain that his family held him in contempt, then I can only say that it did not escape mine.

I shouldn't make the smallest attempt to pull you back from that cliff edge.

You have your own armour, do you not, Frederick?

Miss Thane found that she had underrated her opponent.

I own, I would rather not have featured in your mind as the man with mumps

But it was Restorative pork jelly!

Don't you recognise a Bow Street Runner when you see one?

Ridicklus gudgeon!

I am quite in the way of running off to France with Rupert

I am not sure of my cue. Do I say Amen, or retire cursing? -
His eyes mocked, but the smile in them was not unpleasant.

oh, and

I did it with BEES!

Love @merryhouse’s quotes! I have a massive soft spot for Sherry and Lady Sherry - as he grows up by looking after her - but the true hero of that book is Gil.

I also adore MMA. I can’t think of another book that nails office daily life so well. I spent all my earliest working years gossiping just like they do in the typists’ room. Still do, but the level of scandal has fallen off a bit now that people wfh more and we aren’t shut up together 9-5 Mon-Fri.

I am delighted to know every one of those!

“No, no! I am very fond of horses!”

I've never tried to talk to an eel. Isn't it a waste of time?

Why shouldn't she hit Lethbridge with a poker? You don't like him. I don't like him.

I love the part in The Talisman Ring when Sarah is sneaking out of the inn and gets caught by the Bow Street Runners. She pretends it was a tryst with Sir Tristram and he has to play along.

@Shivermetimbers0112 - I wanted to thank you for that dreamy and superb piece of writing. I haven’t wanted to read Joyce until now but I have ordered a copy from the library.