by Jane AustenIn a letter to her sister Cassandra, dated Jan. 29, 1813, Miss Austen tells how “her own darling child” arrived, and was read aloud to a friend without its authorship being disclosed. “She was amused, poor soul. That she could not help, you know, with two such people to lead the way; but she really does seem to admire Elizabeth. I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print; and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least I do not know.” On Feb. 4, 1813, after noticing a misprint, she says: “There might as well be no suppers at Longbourn; but I suppose it was the remains of Mrs. Bennet’s old Meryton habits.”
She often recurs to her pleasure in her friends’ affection for Elizabeth and Darcy. The following passage also illustrates the way in which she regarded her own characters. It occurs as usual in a letter to her sister. “My brother and I went to the exhibition in Spring Gardens. It is not thought a good collection, but I was very well pleased, particularly with a small portrait of Mrs. Bingley, excessively like her. I went in hopes of seeing one of her sister, but there was no Mrs. Darcy. Perhaps, however, I may find her in the great exhibition.”
“Mrs. Bingley is exactly herself size, shape, face, features, and sweetness! There never was a greater likeness. She is dressed in a white gown with green ornaments, which convinces me of what I had always supposed that green was a favourite colour with her. I daresay Mrs. D. will be in yellow.”
Of the minor characters she told her family that “Kitty Bennet was satisfactorily married to a clergyman near Pemberley, while Mary obtained nothing higher than one of her Uncle Philips’s clerks, and was content to be considered a star in the society of Meryton.”
