Literary Austen sleuths associate Pemberley with Chatsworth House or with Wentworth Woodhouse. There may be other favored locations. Those are the two I have discovered.
Janine Barchas proposed the Wentworth Woodhouse entry in the Pemberley sweepstakes. The title of the article I read is Celebrity Name-Dropping Leads to Another Model for Pemberley.
When Wentworth Woodhouse was on the market recenlty, a newspaper quoted the sales agent: "“From Darcy’s point of view,” says Crispin Holborow , head of country houses at Savills, “it has the most incredible marble saloon. There are very few to compare. If he hosted a ball, the hall would be where guests would congregate and he would stand on the pillared gallery and shyly think about joining the guests. Or he would stand up there and exchange a glance with Elizabeth.”
ELIZABETH VISITS PEMBERLEY IN P&P:
In analyzing this section of P&P, academics I have skimmed fall back on a similar scene from Samuel Richardson's The History of Sir Charles Grandison published in 1754. I confess I have not read it, nor am I likely to. From what I gather, Austen probably intentionally patterned Elizabeth's first visit to Pemberley on Harriet's--Harriet is Richardson's heroine--experience of Grandison's house and grounds when she sees them for the first time as his bride. To my mind, the most interesting part of this analysis is Austen's admiration of Richardson's technique exhibited by her conscious use of a variation on it juxtaposed against her self-knowledge, specifically that to many thoughtful readers in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Richardson's Charles Grandison was over 1500 pages of cloying goodness while Austen says of herself "[p]ictures of perfection...make me sick and wicked."
My, things always seem to get busy around they holidays, I've already started my Christmas shopping as I'm sure a lot of others have. I've really enjoyed talking with your @jordansdream I hope we can stay in touch even over Christmas!
I've heard as well about Chatsworth being the inspiration for Pemberley, and I think they shot at it for the movie "Death Comes To Pemberley." Although I wouldn't recommend it as they don't stay true to the Characters at all. You wouldn't even know them were it not for the fact they have the same names.
Wentworth Woodhouse is breathtaking, I can't imagine how long it would take to go over the entire house but it would be a wonderful time if you could.
Like most houses I would imagine it was added on to over time, and that idea makes me think, it would be interesting if in Miss Clue they made expansions to Pemberley to make it as large as that! Though I suppose it wouldn't work as a game since you couldn't have a reason for all the room and even if you could explore them, it would get boring to most people, so maybe a mini expansion then!
I'm not familiar with Samuel Richardson's The History of Sir Charles Grandison, its exciting to think that books you can read today were read and discussed in Jane Austen's time.
I know some people think, if you use someone else's work as inspiration for yours they are not as impressed, but I think it is nice. As it shows more education and also a kind of homage to the author, reflecting how amazing and inspiring their work really is. I wouldn't go so far as to say you should copy, or piggy back on the author by claiming to be as good, unless you're willing to do a great deal all research. Now if you are writing contemporary like Jane Austen did I think you could be just as charming, though I feel people don't put very much effort into books these days.
Have you ever heard of the book The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte M. Yonge?
In the picture gallery at Pemberley, Elizabeth sees a smiling portrait of Darcy painted when he was younger, so I'll present some candidates when I relocate them. I had several picked out then became busy.
An Austen letter, one of the very few I have read, tells us that sometime after the publication of P&P she was looking for a portrait of Elizabeth in galleries and had not found one although she had seen one that captured her idea of Jane. From this I have decided capriciously that Austen was not looking for a portrait that fit her mental picture of Darcy because either she already knew from life or she had already seen one. Going with the latter, I'm looking for portraits painted before the date of that letter in which the subject's expression is not severe; that should narrow an overcrowded field down somewhat. The date of that letter is 1813.
I've heard of Charlotte Yonge and never read her. I want to start with the most readable. Do you think The Heir of Redclyffe fits that bill? I've only rather recently cajoled myself into liking Trollope and that because he represents a vast largely unexplored (by me anyway) literary pasture. He isn't as mean and is much funnier in Barchester Towers than he later becomes. I have The Way We Live Now sitting untouched waiting for me to feel the need for 800 pages of ruthless satire.
Is any humor or wry characterization in Yonge? Something to save the books from the flat characters common to nineteenth century novelists prone to sermonizing?
I've chosen Tom Lefroy for Bingley, not Darcy. This is based on Austen's brief relationship with Lefroy which ended when he hurriedly departed her neighborhood. As described in the letter I read, this sounded a lot like the way Bingley suddenly leaves for London. Austen wrote to Cassandra about Tom Lefroy in 1796.
Late in life Lefroy admitted he was in love with Austen in a boyish way. What apparently happened is that Lefroy left because he could not afford to marry Austen and Austen did not have a bean either, so his aunt, Mrs. Lefroy, with whom he was staying and who was also Austen's genuinely devoted friend, prudently hustled him out of sight. Mrs. Lefroy herself seems to have been an intriguing character; she died in a fall from her horse five or ten years later. Was she one of those rare ladies who rode to hounds? I have not yet been able to find out.
I doubt Lefroy was a model Bingley in other than appearance, incident, and pleasant manners. The needs of fiction and imagination oppose that kind of adherence. An argument can be made that parts of Lefroy go into Wickham and parts of Austen herself as a flighty excitable girl go into Lydia. Austen wrote to her sister of Lefroy: " I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together."
This portrait of Sir Humphry Davy as a young man of 25 in 1803 by Henry Howard slides in as a Darcy portrait in Pemberley choice. I like this one because a later portrait of Davy by Thomas Lawrence painted around 1821 four years after Austen's death fits neatly into the Colin Firth school of Darcys. In fact, the Royal Society blog says Davy makes a better Darcy than Firth. I like the idea of the Lawrence image of Davy because I can imagine Austen visualizing the changes age and dignity of endeavor
Dazzler dream: I think your idea for remodeling and expanding Pemberley allows for plenty of screen variation:
dazzlerdream said:
Like most houses I would imagine it was added on to over time, and that idea makes me think, it would be interesting if in Miss Clue they made expansions to Pemberley to make it as large as that! Though I suppose it wouldn't work as a game since you couldn't have a reason for all the room and even if you could explore them, it would get boring to most people, so maybe a mini expansion then!
It's been several days but a lot has happened! We have our tree up, Christmas cards sent, (my favorite part) most of our shopping done, for some reason you have to do that early if you want to shop online, and our first batch of cookies has just come out of the oven! I always like to have a white Christmas but it doesn't happen every year. does it snow much where you are and do you like it?
It's really hard to find an equal to Austen's writing, especially for interesting characters. I would have to say that Younge does a good job with characterization, she was super popular in her time, but in the ones i've read she doesn't have that sense of humour that really comes through with Austen. I think the closest i've read to Austen for just fun and good humour might be Georgette Heyer. Her book The Masqueraders is just crazy all the way through and her hero is great! I've also read Heyer was a huge Austen fan.
Ooo I love the pictures you've found! My vote definitely has to go to Sir Humphry Davy. He would make an amazing Mr. Darcy! His expression looks like he would be nice, but also stately. I think some of my favorite pictures of Darcy and Elizabeth and all the P&P gang would be by C.E. Brock who did the illustrations for the MacMillan edition in about 1895.
I agree! I've always thought that Jane Austen must have based quite a bit of Lydia's character off of her own, especially from her letters to Cassandra when she was young lol. Maybe there was even a time when she would have liked to runaway to Grenta Green! I wonder what LeFroy meant by "a boyish kind of love"? Maybe he couldn't say more since he was quite old and married when they asked him abut Jane?
In looking at portraits that might have fit Austen's mental image of Elizabeth and were of the period, George Henry Harlow was the only artist I happened upon who used a lot of yellow fabric in pictures of women. Here are a few:
I like this last one best because it captures so well the Snow White and Rose Red qualities of Jane and Elizabeth. I rather think this picture would have been painted after Elizabeth and Darcy were married.
@JordansDreams These pictures are beautiful! Especially the last! I love that you looked for ones with yellow! I remember Jane making a comment that she always supposed Elizabeth was partial to yellow and Jane to green.
Here is a picture I stumbled across awhile ago, I remember thinking when I saw it that it reminded me of Elizabeth Bennet! Only the harp is out of place, but maybe she learned to after she married Darcy :D
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