It is a truth universally acknowledged that Miss Jane Austen's fictionalised account known as "Pride and Prejudice" was informed mainly by the recollections of her friend Miss Elizabeth Bennet, supplemented by information from others in Miss Bennet's circle.More than two hundred years later, a trove of documents has finally emerged to suggest that Miss Austen's understanding of the events she portrayed, was less complete than she apparently believed.I refer, of course, to the recent discovery of the so-called "Pemberley Papers", a bundle of notes, diaries, maps, letters and other ephemera that had lain hidden in the library of that great house through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The trove includes records kept by Mr Darcy starting in 1806 and covering the years up to his wedding; several detailed diaries from the Bingley family and others; and many items of correspondence sent during that same period between Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, his cousin Captain Richard Fitzwilliam,...
Description:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Miss Jane Austen's fictionalised account known as "Pride and Prejudice" was informed mainly by the recollections of her friend Miss Elizabeth Bennet, supplemented by information from others in Miss Bennet's circle.More than two hundred years later, a trove of documents has finally emerged to suggest that Miss Austen's understanding of the events she portrayed, was less complete than she apparently believed.I refer, of course, to the recent discovery of the so-called "Pemberley Papers", a bundle of notes, diaries, maps, letters and other ephemera that had lain hidden in the library of that great house through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The trove includes records kept by Mr Darcy starting in 1806 and covering the years up to his wedding; several detailed diaries from the Bingley family and others; and many items of correspondence sent during that same period between Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, his cousin Captain Richard Fitzwilliam,...