Mostly Jane Austen, favourite is Mansfield Park. Also JAFF. This is what happens when a very bored Cognitive Neuroscientist gets super into 19th century British literature? she/her Canadian
I write about Jane Austen because I love her works, but also because I write JAFF (Jane Austen Fan Fiction). I also really enjoy Anne BrontĆ«, especiallyĀ The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, George Eliot, and Elizabeth Gaskell, specifically Wives & Daughters.
I have two self-published novels, Prideful & Persuaded: A Jane Austen Crossover Romance and Unfairly Caught: A Mansfield Park Variation. You can find my free stories and other stuff here. I also write on AHA and AO3 under this same username. If you want a comprehensive list of every named character in Jane Austenās six novels: here. (for Regency names in real life here), Mansfield Park probably isn't about slavery and Regency-ish household budgets
My Northanger Abbey readthrough can be found here
My Lady Susan readthrough can be found here
Link to my AITA Jane Austen posts
Link to find all my Jane Austen Charted posts
Link to find all my Why You Should Read This Jane Austen Novel posts
Objective (lol) hotness ratings for Jane Austen's heroes, heroines, and dubious men
Some of my favourite posts:
Estimated Sexual Abilities of Austen Men
First Kiss for each Austen Heroine Couple
Who would each Jane Austen Heroine stab?
The sluttiest thing a (Jane Austen) man can say
Each Jane Austen Hero Writes a āWentworth Letterā
Fighting ability of Austen Men
If you want to learn more about my other life in science, check out this post.
My Asian drama sideblog Fake Married my Dead Fiance is here (this does not work on phones? just search fake-married-my-dead-fiance)
I was talking to a friend recently about Austen adaption fails and how they keep trying to do the "snarky, looks to camera" thing with characters who would absolutely not "snarky, looks to camera." And while ranting, I stumbled across the solution to Hollywood's misguided woes: do it with Henry Tilney. If there's any Austen character who has clocked the nonsense, it's Henry. There's a cute girl in his dad's house and she's determined to live in a different genre AND SHE'S BEING VERY UNSUBTLE ABOUT IT. He should get to be a diva for the camera
I love how you can identify Darcy at first glance:
Again, we have Mr. Bennet antagonizing his family on purpose:
Not all that Mrs. Bennet, however, with the assistance of her five daughters, could ask on the subject, was sufficient to draw from her husband any satisfactory description of Mr. Bingley. They attacked him in various ways, with barefaced questions, ingenious suppositions, and distant surmises; but he eluded the skill of them all;
He's not just hiding in his library! He could have just told them what Bingley looks like, but he won't. He likes to rile them all up.
This description of Bingley from Lady Lucas is quite accurate, if a little over-fawning:
He was quite young, wonderfully handsome, extremely agreeable, and, to crown the whole, he meant to be at the next assembly with a large party. Nothing could be more delightful! To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love; and very lively hopes of Mr. Bingleyās heart were entertained.
As dancing was basically the speed dating of the Regency era, I think this indicates that he's on the market, not just fond of dancing. It's a big deal. And it highlights too I think why Mr. Darcy refusing to dance was so annoying to everyone.
Mrs. Bennet was quite disconcerted. She could not imagine what business he could have in town so soon after his arrival in Hertfordshire; and she began to fear that he might always be flying about from one place to another, and never settled at Netherfield as he ought to be.
Again, the foreshadowing! But also, as he ought to be so that she can successfully marry him off to her daughters. How dare he have his own life and oppose her goals.
Here we are introduced to the Gossip of Meryton as a character almost. Sometimes true, often exaggerated:
and a report soon followed that Mr. Bingley was to bring twelve ladies and seven gentlemen with him to the assembly. The girls grieved over such a number of ladies; but were comforted the day before the ball by hearing that, instead of twelve, he had brought only six with him from London, his five sisters and a cousin. And when the party entered the assembly-room, it consisted of only five altogether: Mr. Bingley, his two sisters, the husband of the eldest, and another young man.
I've seen people ask where his other sisters went, but I think it's pretty clear they never existed, they were just gossip being bandied about.
I've talked about it a lot before, but Darcy isn't just shy or socially awkward, you cannot create this level of disgust that way. He was rude!
till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend... Mr. Darcy danced only once with Mrs. Hurst and once with Miss Bingley, declined being introduced to any other lady, and spent the rest of the evening in walking about the room, speaking occasionally to one of his own party. His character was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody hoped that he would never come there again.
He refuses to talk to anyone. He refuses to dance with anyone or even be introduced! He had other options too, if he didn't want to dance he could have sat down with the card players (Mr. Knightley attempts to do this) or he could have stayed home. But no, he went and he pissed off an entire town. And that's not even mentioning the insult yet!
āWhich do you mean?ā and turning round, he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till, catching her eye, he withdrew his own, and coldly said, āShe is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.ā
Mr. Bingley followed his advice. Mr. Darcy walked off; and Elizabeth remained with no very cordial feelings towards him. She told the story, however, with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous.
He looks right at Elizabeth and insults her. You know the weirdest criticism I've seen of Elizabeth is that she shouldn't have spread around that she overheard this insult but um, it was directed right at her and said in public. That is more than fair game for gossip.
Just noticed this, it's funny that Mr. Bennet had to go introduce himself to Bingley for the girls to talk to him, but also that works to dance with Bingley at the ball even though he's never actually seen the girls. Mr. Bennet didn't go! Bingley wasn't introduced to them directly before the ball. Interesting.
The evening altogether passed off pleasantly to the whole family. Mrs. Bennet had seen her eldest daughter much admired by the Netherfield party. Mr. Bingley had danced with her twice, and she had been distinguished by his sisters. Jane was as much gratified by this as her mother could be, though in a quieter way. Elizabeth felt Janeās pleasure. Mary had heard herself mentioned to Miss Bingley as the most accomplished girl in the neighbourhood; and Catherine and Lydia had been fortunate enough to be never without partners, which was all that they had yet learnt to care for at a ball. They returned, therefore, in good spirits to Longbourn, the village where they lived, and of which they were the principal inhabitants.
Here we have some foreshadowing about Jane's modesty. Also, many people think Mary didn't dance at the assembly ball at all, but I think that's unlikely. While it isn't mentioned, there is no reason for her not to. In fact, Mr. Bennet cuts his wife off before Bingley probably danced with Mary, if he followed seniority which he seemed to be doing.
Also, Longborn has a village! This means it's probably it's own parish and has a church, we know from later that the Bingleys, 3 miles away, attend a different church from the Bennets. The clergyman is never mentioned, I wonder what Mr. Collins thought of the services...
āBut I can assure you,ā she added, āthat Lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing. So high and so conceited, that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with! I wish you had been there, my dear, to have given him one of your set-downs. I quite detest the man.ā
I kind of dislike the term "set-down" because it gets so overused in JAFF, but that is besides the point here. I want to point out that Mrs. Bennet seems to admire her husband's ability to insult people. Here she is hoping he can use it against Darcy.
Also! The Bingley sisters are FASHIONABLE
āOh, my dear,ā continued Mrs. Bennet, āI am quite delighted with him. He is so excessively handsome! and his sisters are charming women. I never in my life saw anything more elegant than their dresses. I dare say the lace upon Mrs. Hurstās gownāāā
I need to stop ranting about JAFF but PLEASE, write Caroline correctly! She is rich and actually lives in London, she is dressing herself well!
the shocking rudeness of Mr. Darcy
Look, I know that both The Gossips of Meryton and Mrs. Bennet exaggerate, but the amount that this chapter dwells on his rudeness and the amount people deny he was ever rude... He was rude! People hated him for it! He's not a poor little Shyboi!
Iām a big fan of reenactment archaeology. I think thereās a lot to be said for recreating a scenario to better understand decisions made in generations past. Usually thereās an inherent logic to them.
Which is to say, that now that I have a baby of my own, I understand so much better the common cultural practice in which unmarried women wear their hair loose and uncovered, while married women have their hair covered and/or bound back.
I doubt it was just for modesty, oh no. No, my friends, I see now that the reason for this common practice of mothers binding back their hair is because there is nothing, I mean nothing, a baby love more than YANKING EVERY STRAND OF HAIR THAT COMES WITHIN GRABBING DISTANCE OF THEIR STICKY, SWEATY, AND IMPOSSIBLY STRONG LITTLE HANDS.
It is necessary for my postpartum depression study for the moms to have their hair down (due to our science hats) and the second they put their hair down YANK
I am reading Daughter of the Gods by Stephanie Thornton and while it seems very well researched, as far as I can tell, the characters just... don't feel like people half of the time. Or like the people they ought to be. The novel is about Hatshepsut, who despite being a woman ruled as pharaoh and her story is very cool but the character doesn't seem to act like royalty at all and she doesn't to have any filter. I mean again, I'm not that up on ancient Egypt and their levels of propriety, but I was totally thrown out of the story when she said this to her husband's advisor whom she's known for a couple months about a new concubine:
"Anything that keeps Thut [her husband/half brother] from my bed-"
TMI! This is your husband's friend! Who says that? I could see her saying something like that to a trusted female friend, but she doesn't really seem to have that now that her sister is dead.
And for someone who is royal and like, the daughter of the gods, she doesn't have much... gravitas? I accept her not fitting well into her role as princess/queen because she did just force her way from regent to co-monarch but I just don't buy this girl as a queen who thinks she's the descendant of the gods. Also, the lack of bodyguards/retinue...
Anyway, maybe I'm just being whiny but I need to find some sort of sweet spot in historical fiction where the characters feel human and there is also research. It can't just be one or the other! side eye to A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting for having the opposite problem
(also the fat shaming is over the top, god forbid a bored concubine enjoys food)
...And I rage quit:
"I would propose keeping a personal bodyguard with you at all times," Pennekheb said. "One can't be too careful."
"I really don't think that's necessary." She didn't care to always have someone lurking in her shadow.
WOMAN YOU ARE THE REGENT OF EGYPT YOU NEED BODYGUARDS! Also again, not a Egyptian historian, but I really imagine she would've been shadowed by a bunch of servants from birth.
I wouldn't trust this woman to run her own life much less the country
Freaking modern woman cosplaying as a badass Egyptian queen
Also! She has the audacity to call Thut a bad husband, and I know this is from her POV but she was a terrible wife so I don't know what she was expecting. And again, not very knowledgeable about Egypt but even by modern standards cheating is frowned upon. As a wife she:
Spent the entire time, from second 1 to the very end, trying to "share" her pharaoh husband's power, which since she's not supposed to do that, is just her trying to steal his power. He lets her for the first 3 ish months
The main problem with him in the bedroom seems to be that she's not attracted to him which is not actually something he can fix? And she tells both her servants and his friend that she hates having sex with him which...
Then she cheats on him with his best friend/advisor, yes it's only a kiss, but she herself classified it as treason
This is not good wife behaviour. All in all, he was probably the better of the two spouses. And given that her entire goal was to NOT be locked up in the wife quarters all the time, her kissing a man was just incredibly stupid. Sure, she's only seventeen at this point but in two short years she'll be running Egypt and she was apparently quite good at it.
She also doesn't seem to have a scheming bone in her body. She just asks Thut for things, doesn't offer an incentive or suck up or manipulate him or anything, just asks and then gets mad if he says no. Then tries to do things behind his back...
I think I am so angry because how do you take a historical figure as awesome as Hatshepsut and make her come off as stupid? I picked up this book thinking, "No amount of Girlbossing can bother me here because she managed to take the throne as a woman and that is the ultimate real life girlboss move" But no, she's like, entirely driven by emotions. This author has no idea how to write intelligent characters. What even is this?
I empathize with Mary Bennet but not in the flattering nerdy girl way, in the 'having failed to be popular as a teenager, I decided I was smarter and more moral and artistic then everyone anyway, and had a reflexive snobbishness that probably made me insufferable even to those who might have been sympathetic' way. Thankfully my future life and marriage wasn't determined by who I was at 15.
I am reading Daughter of the Gods by Stephanie Thornton and while it seems very well researched, as far as I can tell, the characters just... don't feel like people half of the time. Or like the people they ought to be. The novel is about Hatshepsut, who despite being a woman ruled as pharaoh and her story is very cool but the character doesn't seem to act like royalty at all and she doesn't to have any filter. I mean again, I'm not that up on ancient Egypt and their levels of propriety, but I was totally thrown out of the story when she said this to her husband's advisor whom she's known for a couple months about a new concubine:
"Anything that keeps Thut [her husband/half brother] from my bed-"
TMI! This is your husband's friend! Who says that? I could see her saying something like that to a trusted female friend, but she doesn't really seem to have that now that her sister is dead.
And for someone who is royal and like, the daughter of the gods, she doesn't have much... gravitas? I accept her not fitting well into her role as princess/queen because she did just force her way from regent to co-monarch but I just don't buy this girl as a queen who thinks she's the descendant of the gods. Also, the lack of bodyguards/retinue...
Anyway, maybe I'm just being whiny but I need to find some sort of sweet spot in historical fiction where the characters feel human and there is also research. It can't just be one or the other! side eye to A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting for having the opposite problem
(also the fat shaming is over the top, god forbid a bored concubine enjoys food)
...And I rage quit:
"I would propose keeping a personal bodyguard with you at all times," Pennekheb said. "One can't be too careful."
"I really don't think that's necessary." She didn't care to always have someone lurking in her shadow.
WOMAN YOU ARE THE REGENT OF EGYPT YOU NEED BODYGUARDS! Also again, not a Egyptian historian, but I really imagine she would've been shadowed by a bunch of servants from birth.
I wouldn't trust this woman to run her own life much less the country
Freaking modern woman cosplaying as a badass Egyptian queen
Also! She has the audacity to call Thut a bad husband, and I know this is from her POV but she was a terrible wife so I don't know what she was expecting. And again, not very knowledgeable about Egypt but even by modern standards cheating is frowned upon. As a wife she:
Spent the entire time, from second 1 to the very end, trying to "share" her pharaoh husband's power, which since she's not supposed to do that, is just her trying to steal his power. He lets her for the first 3 ish months
The main problem with him in the bedroom seems to be that she's not attracted to him which is not actually something he can fix? And she tells both her servants and his friend that she hates having sex with him which...
Then she cheats on him with his best friend/advisor, yes it's only a kiss, but she herself classified it as treason
This is not good wife behaviour. All in all, he was probably the better of the two spouses. And given that her entire goal was to NOT be locked up in the wife quarters all the time, her kissing a man was just incredibly stupid. Sure, she's only seventeen at this point but in two short years she'll be running Egypt and she was apparently quite good at it.
She also doesn't seem to have a scheming bone in her body. She just asks Thut for things, doesn't offer an incentive or suck up or manipulate him or anything, just asks and then gets mad if he says no. Then tries to do things behind his back...
I am reading Daughter of the Gods by Stephanie Thornton and while it seems very well researched, as far as I can tell, the characters just... don't feel like people half of the time. Or like the people they ought to be. The novel is about Hatshepsut, who despite being a woman ruled as pharaoh and her story is very cool but the character doesn't seem to act like royalty at all and she doesn't to have any filter. I mean again, I'm not that up on ancient Egypt and their levels of propriety, but I was totally thrown out of the story when she said this to her husband's advisor whom she's known for a couple months about a new concubine:
"Anything that keeps Thut [her husband/half brother] from my bed-"
TMI! This is your husband's friend! Who says that? I could see her saying something like that to a trusted female friend, but she doesn't really seem to have that now that her sister is dead.
And for someone who is royal and like, the daughter of the gods, she doesn't have much... gravitas? I accept her not fitting well into her role as princess/queen because she did just force her way from regent to co-monarch but I just don't buy this girl as a queen who thinks she's the descendant of the gods. Also, the lack of bodyguards/retinue...
Anyway, maybe I'm just being whiny but I need to find some sort of sweet spot in historical fiction where the characters feel human and there is also research. It can't just be one or the other! side eye to A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting for having the opposite problem
(also the fat shaming is over the top, god forbid a bored concubine enjoys food)
...And I rage quit:
"I would propose keeping a personal bodyguard with you at all times," Pennekheb said. "One can't be too careful."
"I really don't think that's necessary." She didn't care to always have someone lurking in her shadow.
WOMAN YOU ARE THE REGENT OF EGYPT YOU NEED BODYGUARDS! Also again, not a Egyptian historian, but I really imagine she would've been shadowed by a bunch of servants from birth.
I wouldn't trust this woman to run her own life much less the country
Freaking modern woman cosplaying as a badass Egyptian queen
Thousands of starfish had washed up on the beach, and a little girl was diligently throwing them back into the water, one at a time.
A man came up to the girl and said, "You'll never save all of them. What you're doing is pointless. It doesn't matter."
The girl threw another starfish into the water. "It mattered to that one."
The man snorted and walked away.
The girl kept throwing starfish, one after another.
To throw one starfish back into the ocean takes a trivial amount of effort, but to throw ten, or fifty, is much less so. The girl had not learned much of biomechanics, but she began to feel the strain in her back. Her skin had softened from the seawater, and the starfish themselves were abrasive. Her fingers had pruned. Her shoulder hurt. She was cut, twice, on her fingers, as the same storm that had stranded the starfish had also brought up broken shells and crab carapaces. The skin of a starfish was like sandpaper.
She tried switching hands, and could throw the starfish less well, and it wasn't long before she had mirrored all her injuries. She was bleeding, though the blood wept rather than flowing, briefly staining the starfish pink before they were tossed into the ocean.
It seemed as though there were just as many dying starfish as when she'd started.
After three hours, the girl was sunburnt. A passing man had told her that she should stop what she was doing, and had offered her some water, which she took, but he hadn't helped to throw the starfish back.
The girl's hands were cracked, scraped, and raw. Saltwater found the wounds, but she'd gone numb, and her motions became more mechanical.
"It mattered to that one," she thought to herself, "It mattered to that one," over and over, like a mantra. Her muscles ached, but the ache became familiar. When she'd started, her throws had been beautiful things, guided by purpose, but now they were sloppy and threatened to pull her off balance.
She did fall, more than once, landing on sand that was filled with jagged debris, and sometimes she was slow to get up. But she did get up, because there were more starfish to save, tens of thousands of them.
Night fell, and it was harder to see the starfish, but they were still in need of help. She was tired, and the cuts on her fingers had multiplied. The skin had been wet for too long, and in one place, on her palm, where she had gripped a thousand starfish to throw them, a piece of white skin had come off.
Still, she kept throwing starfish.
Her mother didn't find her until after midnight.
"Hi mom," said the girl. Her voice croaked. She had been saying, "It mattered to that one" under her breath for long enough that her vocal cords had strained. She threw another starfish into the ocean.
"You need to come home," her mother said.
"These starfish will die without me," said the girl.
"I know," said her mother. "But you need to come home, because if you keep doing this, you'll collapse on the beach, and like a starfish, you'll need to be rescued too."
The girl stooped down, back aching, and picked up another starfish. Many of them had died by this point, but there were still uncountably many that lived. The rough skin of the starfish grated at her tender skin, but she rose and threw it, arm protesting, and watched it fall down into the water.
Her mother grabbed her gently by the shoulders. "I'm bringing you home," she said. "It would be better if I didn't have to carry you, but I will if I have to."
"I don't want to be the sort of person who leaves starfish to die," said the girl, shrugging off her mother. But a part of her did want to be carried, because she'd walked for miles along this beach, one stooping step at a time.
"I know," said her mother. "But to survive, you have to be. Save as many as you can, but take breaks, get good sleep, eat well. Then go back and save more."
The girl swayed where she was. She was close to passing out, though maybe it was because her rhythm had been interrupted.
Her mother held out a hand, so they could walk together, like they'd done when she was smaller.
And it was then that she noticed the scars on her mother's hands, the calluses and rough spots, the places where cuts had healed. She had seen her mother's hands many times before, but had never asked why they were that way.
The girl slipped her hand into her mother's and began to cry as they walked back home.
In the time I have spent consuming media that involves popular badā¢ male characters and/or M/F ships where the male character is morally gray or outright evil or conflicted or basically anyone who isn't completely safe and defanged, I have often comes across this statement and its countless other variations.
"Stuff like this is made to brainwash young girls into thinking that they can 'fix' dangerous men. Such girls usually end up in abusive relationships and their parents are right to worry."
It is rather strange to come across such a gross generalization, operating on an assumption that girls are blank slates whom anyone can manipulate and who can't distinguish between real and make believe on top of it.
In my entire "career"(if you can call it that) of engaging with fiction , the girls and women that I have run into in fandoms happened to be some of the most intelligent, talented, cool, witty and insightful people I have ever met. I've devoured the fics they have written. I have delighted in the arts and edits they've made. Their perspectives and interpretations about the characters and their relationships are genuinely fascinating to read about regardless of whether I agree with it or not. They are the ones who are most often at the receiving end of the antis' ire for no valid reason but they just keep deriving joy and inspiration from their favourite characters and ships and keep sharing it with others through stories, art and thoughts. They are not just smart but incredibly resilient, sensitive and aware not just about the media they consume but about the world around them and its issues.
I look up to their brilliance. I marvel at their passion. I admire them. I adore them.
"Mrs. Bennet is the only one taking the situation seriously!"
No.
Mrs. Bennet had 20 years to prepare her daughters for marriage but decided to bank on looks and slutty lively temper alone. She's running around like a chicken with it's head cut off because Jane is nearly 23 and it's finally hit her that 4 or 5 men with Ā£2000-4000/year aren't going to fall from the sky to marry her daughters. Or in other words:
there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them. -Mansfield Park, Ch 1
She's a student cramming for an exam and yelling at her classmate for not forcing her to study sooner. The deadline is bearing down but she hadn't started the group project until the night before. She had 1 job and she hasn't done it and now she's making it everyone else's problem... in no way does this count as "taking the situation seriously"
(And yes, her project partner is useless too, it's an overall failure)
Yup, yup, yup. In fact, Mrs. Bennet is so bad at her supposed job - that is, getting her daughters married - that she isn't even able to correctly identify what the ultimate aim of this job is: to ensure social and financial security for her daughters, and preferably their happiness as well. Unfortunately, it's clear that she views the latter as purely optional, at least in Elizabeth's case, or else she wouldn't have tried to force her to marry Mr. Collins. But even in case of the former, she's unable to see the forest for the trees.
As I mentioned in this post, Mrs. Bennet is so stupid that she's happy about Lydia's marriage to Wickham. Leaving aside the fact that Lydia nearly ruined her sisters' chances of marriage by running away with Wickham, she didn't even get financial security out of it. Wickham is a lazy scrounger who's always in debt and unable to support his wife (and in fact has to be bribed into marrying her). As the last chapter makes clear, the Wickhams are completely unable to make ends meet and live off the Darcys' and Bingleys' generosity for the rest of their lives. In other words, Lydia didn't gain security by marrying Wickham, but rather made things worse for her sisters. But Mrs. Bennet does not seem to be at all aware of this. She is thrilled simply at the fact that Lydia is married, without any care about how it affects the entire family's financial and social well-being.
Or to put it in terms of @bethanydelleman's student metaphor: Mrs. Bennet is a student who thinks that the only important aspect of passing a class is handing in your project in time, nevermind its quality. So even if she does somehow manage to finish her project and hand it in on time (i.e. get her daughters married), it's still not going to help her ultimate aim (financial security for her family) if the quality is so poor she gets an F (her daughter marries a parasite like Wickham).
feminist retelling shoulsnt be the woman does some girlboss shit femist retelling is she does the same stuff except u actually give a shit abt her perspective and thoughts and feelings as a human being this time
Other people have posted about this before, but...
Elizabeth Bennet isn't the narrator of Pride and Prejudice. She's not the only viewpoint character of Pride and Prejudice either. The book is narrated in third person by an omniscient narrator. And while of course there's some blurring of the lines, it's generally clear whether a scene is being described strictly from a character's point of view or whether the narrator is describing it objectively.
From the posts I've read on this subject before, I've learned that the Austen fandom has long had the habit of either trying to paint Darcy as better than he is (e.g. "He was never really proud, just shy") or as worse than he is (e.g. "He probably really did deny Wickham a living out of jealousy"), with the excuse that we only see him from Elizabeth's point of view. But that's not true.
Now I've been seeing the same thing, again and again, when people defend The Other Bennet Sister from complaints that it distorts the characterizations from Pride and Prejudice. They claim "Pride and Prejudice is from Elizabeth's point of view. The Other Bennet Sister gives us Mary's point of view, which is different but just as valid."
But the original book isn't always from Elizabeth's point of view. Overall, it's from an omniscient point of view, which sometimes describes Elizabeth's or another character's specific viewpoint, but at other times tells us what are meant to be fully objective facts about the characters.
