It’s not Sookie’s even though the similarities are unmistakable.
* It’s a work of fiction that is based on a love triangle.
*The heroine is bright and spiritied.
*She is quick to form opinions about people.
*She falls for a charming lieutenant, a master of deception who manipulates people for his personal gain.
*She ignores red flags about him early in their acquaintance.
*He has no long lasting friendships because he uses people and moves on.
*He has a nomadic past.
*His downfall is always due to his lack of self-control.
*His name starts with a ‘Wi’ and ends with an ‘am.’
*He deliberately poisons the heroine’s opinion of another man who is interested in her.
*She is already prejudiced against this other man because of her faulty first impression of him.
*The two men have a history that the heroine is in the dark about.
*She realizes he is a user, but rationalizes his behavior until it hits too close to home.
*The other man is a wealthy sophisticate, temporarily living in a small town.
*He appears to be vain and prejudice.
*He is bored to death by all the silly women who throw themselves at him.
*His blunt manner and truth telling is off putting.
*He has a platonic relationship with a woman that is misconstrued to be a romantic one.
*Despite his reputation, he maintains a number of good friends and loving relationships.
*He is responsible for a large number of dependents.
*He is furious with the first man for abusing his ward.
*He falls hard and fast for the heroine, and makes himself a fool over her.
*He is blind to how she perceives him and how the lieutenant reinforced her negative opinion of him.
*Their relationship is characterized by miscommunication and misunderstandings.
*He openly declares his love for her.
*He is shocked when she rejects him.
*When the lieutenant disappears with a woman, he has the opportunity to help the heroine find him.
*This experience is what reveals that the lieutenant is still an unregenerate cad of the worst sort and that the vain sophisticate will set himself up to be shamed and embarrassed in front of his peers for the heroine’s good opinion and love.
One final hint:
Grrrr, Renee. This is killing me! I went through my whole bookshelf last night, and if I have the Lieutenant character, then it was written by a man,etc….or his name doesn’t start with “W”, lol.
Can you tell me if it’s 19th or 20th C.?? I’m drawing a total blank.
Hehe! Love it!
Click on the link at the bottom of the post.
Here it is.
Aha! I actually had that as a fleeting thought, but since I’ve never read it, didn’t want to take the guess. The last time I tried, I was in high school and she was too fru-fru for me. Sigh, maybe I should give Mr. Darcy another whirl, hee hee.
I was much more into the Bronte sisters when I was in HS. Funny how the fru fru Miss Austen appealed to me much later in life. You’ll LOVE Mr. Darcy.
Mr. Darcy is well worth another whirl.
Personally I adore JA’s light, bright, sprakling prose and her ironic wit, but her neoclassical style is an aquired taste.
Some critics think she was truly twisted, a hater of humanity who wrote with a controlled rage because of her ability to shine a spotlight on human frailty and hypocrisy and make light of it.(Sound familiar?) Mark Twain thought someone should dig up her body and hit her over the head with her own shinbone.
She lived on the cusp of the Victorian Age when romantic sentiment was starting to be championed over the clear headed reason of the Enlightenment. She came down firmly on the side of head over heart–unrestrained passion did not lead to a happy marriage. She thought that passion must be tempered with reason and supported by friendship and a common outlook on life. The idea that Sookie and Eric are an ideal couple because their characters are so similar is straight out of P&P.
While the head vs heart, enlightenment vs romanticism conflict is apparent in P&P with Lizzie’s two suitors, it is the whole of Sense and Sensibility. If you have not seen that movie, I would highly recommend it. It is a good first step into JA’s world and Emma Thompson’s screenplay improves the novel, which was one of JA’s early works and not her best effort.
Shutting up now…Did I mention how much I love JA?
One of the wonderful things about JA is that she’s really funny. She’s got such a clear eye for the social realities of the world she lived in. I didn’t realise that Mark Twain disliked her.
I ease my mind about that comment by Twain by telling myself he didn’t really understand her. LOL!
Ha, I knew you were talking about Pride and Prejudice. I love the book, the BBC mini-series and the movie with Keira Knightly. I love Jane Austin too!
Harumph! I was hoping I’d be able to throw people off the trail by putting Wickham before Darcy.
Love Jane Austin
Pride and Prejudice have watch the mini-series over and over .Love it