Confessions and Correspondence: Letters between Anne de Bourgh and Georgiana Darcy

Welcome to our epistolary retelling of Pride & Prejudice! Jane Austen’s original version of the story, First Impressions, was told entirely in letters, so it seemed like a great group project! We’ll be posting a new letter every Wednesday. 

December 3, 1811

My dear Georgiana,

I hope you and your brother are well, and that you are happy together, now that he has returned to London. He seems to have been away in Herefordshire, visiting his friend Mr. Bingley, for quite an inordinately long time. My mother has been wondering if he had another interest there. It must always be a worry to you, there can hardly be another man more tempting to fortune-hunters than he must be, and not merely because of his fortune. However, Darcy has brains and taste enough to avoid falling into such snares, and the character to always consider the well being of his young sister first; so I am sure you need have no fears on that score. Still, you must have felt quite forlorn in town, not out yet, and with nothing but lessons and mistresses and your music to occupy you. Fortunately you will soon be back at Pemberley at Christmas, the happiest place at the happiest time, that could possibly be. I do envy you, and wish my my mother and I might be able to join you, but we hardly expect that my health will permit it.

My dear cousin, I was just about to close up my letter, when I received the most astonishing and concerning news! My mother has just been informed that our clergyman, Mr. Collins, who has been visiting connections in the same neighborhood in Hertfordshire, where Darcy has been sojourning, has just selected a young lady, a friend of his cousins the Bennets, to be his bride! My mother does not know what to think. He had given us to suppose that he was considering some one or other of Mr Bennet’s own daughters, reputed to be both beautiful and good, and that was his business at Longbourn. But it is not so. His bride presumptive is a Miss Charlotte Lucas, the daughter of Sir William Lucas, which is at least something, and increases the likelihood that she will be relatively genteel. And only think, they are to be married directly and he will bring her to Hunsford almost immediately after Christmas!

You can imagine what very great apprehensions I entertain about this turn of events. Picture to yourself how much a part Mrs. Collins must play in almost every aspect of our daily lives – all the good works my mother and I do with our church and our parish must necessarily be involved with the clergyman’s wife, and if she asserts herself and tries to direct matters my mother will be very much displeased. And we do not know how much of a lady Mrs. Collins may be – how often will we bear to entertain her at Rosings, and is she capable of joining in the society of her superiors? Mr. Collins is a very good man, and would surely aim as high as possible in selecting a bride, but my mother and I occasionally have had had some doubts about the soundness of his judgment. Oh dear, what can she be like? I wonder if you have heard anything from your brother about these people – the Lucases, and the Bennets?  Has he met them? Is he acquainted with this Miss Charlotte Lucas at all?

Dear Georgina, I conclude my letter in the greatest spirit of perturbation, and I beg you to reply as quickly as you may, if you have any intelligence of these families, and can give me any assurance about this person who is going to be inevitably so very important in our own parish, and lives. I fear her being something disagreeable.

Affectionately,

Anne

December 7, 1811

My dear Anne,

I was happy to receive your letter, though concerned to hear that you are not in the best of health. I hope that there is nothing particularly concerning, and that Lady Catherine is well. I can understand your anxiety about your clergyman’s prospective wife, and I write at once to tell you that I do have information about her, that may reassure you. My dear brother arrived in London last week and has been regaling me with stories about his time with his dear friend Mr. Bingley, and his family and friends. Since receiving your news I have spoken to him, and he assures me that he has seen Miss Lucas, in company, numerous times in his six or so weeks in Hertfordshire, and is thoroughly acquainted with her reputation. It is excellent, and she is well known for her modest good nature and being a woman of sense. She is not a beauty, nor over young, being seven and twenty, but an agreeable, capable person, quite a lady, well behaved and with very good manners, who will no doubt be a good wife for Mr. Collins, an excellent manager of his household, and useful to the parish. She has no aversion to mixing in society, is fully able to join in your dinners and card evenings, yet without calling undue attention to herself. Darcy believes that you will be very well pleased. Her husband is another story.

Between ourselves, it was thought in the neighborhood that Mr. Collins was very taken with Miss Elizabeth Bennet and would propose to her. There is no harm in telling you these particulars, as they are a very open secret, but evidently he did propose, and was rejected, and the very next morning sought Miss Lucas’s hand! Is that not extraordinary? She was very willing to accept, for she is one of many children, and while Sir William Lucas is comfortably off, there will be not much money for her, and at her age it is a match beyond her expectations. I hope they will be very happy, and there does appear to be every reason why they should be.

I must say that this Miss Elizabeth Bennet is very interesting to me, and I do hope that I may be able to see her some day. Darcy has done little but speak of her, and in such terms as to indicate that she is one of the handsomest and cleverest women of his acquaintance. I know him to be not at all susceptible to speculation, and I am sure she is not his equal in fortune or society, so I do not suspect any eventualities of that sort; but she does sound like a delightful person. She is a great friend of the future Mrs. Collins, so it is very likely that she may be invited to Hunsford one day, and you shall see her for yourself. I know that you and Darcy have been destined for one another from your cradles, by your mother and my own, so do not have any fears about that. Perhaps Miss Bennet might do for Colonel Fitzwilliam, only she may be too poor for him. Dear me! Here I go, matchmaking like the worst of the female species. I do long to have a good, full, satisfying letter from you, when Mr. Collins brings his bride home, and to hear what you think of her! I trust it will be a good report.

Your affectionate cousin,

Georgiana