Friday Quote: Pride & Prejudice

"Her teeth are tolerable but not out of the common way . . . "

Jealousy

Caroline Bingley has a crush on Mr. Darcy. The problem is Elizabeth Bennet. Darcy has already admitted he thinks Elizabeth has fine eyes. Now that Caroline has had a chance to observe Darcy's admiration of Elizabeth while in her company she has resorted to hurling low-down dirty insults. As Jane Austen points out: " . . . this was not the best method of recommending herself; but angry people are not always wise."

"How very ill [Elizabeth] Bennet looks this morning, Mr. Darcy," [Caroline Bingley] cried; " I never in my life saw any one so much altered as she is since the winter. She is grown so brown and coarse! Louisa and I were agreeing that we should not have known her again . . . For my own part, I must confess that I never could see any beauty in her. Her face is too thin; her complexion has no brilliancy  and her features are not at all handsome. Her nose wants character -- there is nothing marked in its lines. Her teeth are tolerable but not out of the common way; and as for her eyes, which has sometimes been called so fine, I never could perceive anything extraordinary in them. They have a sharp, shrewish look which I do not like at all; and in her air altogether there is a self-sufficiency without fashion, which is intolerable."
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice (ch. 45)

For a great post on the subject of jealousy visit Tim Fall's recent post at Just One Train Wreck After Another.

Hope you have a marvelous weekend! See you Sunday for "Classics and the Bible Sundays."

The Beautiful Expression of Her Dark Eyes

Lately I've been following a wonderful blog called Scribblepreach. I've noticed once a week the author, Nick McDonald, puts up a post that is simply a quote pulled from his reading. I love that idea! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Nick is a very thoughtful writer. Also, and he and his wife are working on a children's book together! I hope you'll take the time to check out his blog.

So introducing the Classical Quest "Friday Quote":

Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed [Elizabeth] to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticize. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness. Of this she was perfectly unaware; -- to her he was only the man who made himself agreeable nowhere, and who had not thought her handsome enough to dance with.

~ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen