In her introduction to Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition, editor Patricia Meyer Spacks makes a confession: “Producing these notes taught me more than I thought I had left to learn about Pride and Prejudice,” she writes. “I have read the novel probably forty or fifty times. I have taught it, over the course of many years to undergraduates at every stage of their college educations, to graduate students, and to faculty seminars. Several times I have held forth about it in print. With real shame now, I confess that at the beginning of this project I thought I could annotate the book out of my head. I was wrong.” Even for somebody who knows this book as intimately as Spacks, there are still layers upon layers to be discovered about this much loved novel and the world in which it is situated. Here are just five fun facts about Pride and Prejudice and its world that Spacks unearths in her annotations.
1) Throughout Pride and Prejudice, much is made of the incomes of various characters. As soon as word gets out that Mr. Bingley has rented Netherfield, rumors begin to circulate estimating his income at “four or five thousand a year.” But how much is this, actually? While Spacks notes that it’s “virtually impossible to calculate equivalents, a yearly income of £5,000 would be equivalent to something between $340,000 and $500,000 in 2010 dollars.” This would put Mr. Darcy’s income at roughly one million.
2) Might there be a real-life Pemberley? Nobody knows for sure, but Derbyshire, the county where Darcy’s estate is located, is “famous for its great houses.” Some have speculated that Chatsworth, “the magnificent home of the dukes of Devonshire,” might be the model for Pemberley.
3) In Volume I, Chapter 6, Austen refers to the Bennets’ visit to Netherfield being returned “in due form.” What does “due form” involve? Spacks explains that the “etiquette of reciprocal visits belongs to an elaborate system of manners.” Social calls could only happen between certain hours—usually 11am and 3pm—and the “promptness with which a call was returned could be taken to measure the caller’s degree of enthusiasm for the acquaintance, as could the length of the formal visit.” Following the rituals of calling according to proper form was considered a status symbol in its own right.
4) In a fit of enthusiasm over his plans to throw a ball at Netherfield, Bingley proclaims, “[A]s for the ball, it is quite a settled thing; and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough, I shall send round my cards.” White soup, Spacks tells us, is “an elaborate soup based on veal stock, cream, and almonds.”
5) Despite that Elizabeth has just humiliatingly rejected his proposal, Mr. Darcy insists on delivering a letter to her the next day by hand. It’s an awkward encounter, but, Spacks reveals, a necessary one: “Because correspondence between a man and a woman was considered improper unless the couple were engaged, Darcy protects Elizabeth’s reputation by giving her the letter in person instead of mailing it to her.”
For more on indiscreet utterances, unreserve, impudence, repugnance, and marriages desirable in every respect, find yourself a copy of the book!
