Pride and Prejudice (2005) + horror

The full Bennet Family Finances endnote from Ch33

I’ve been doing some more maths (ch26 has the initial discussion) on the savings that our characters might do/should’ve done since it’s fascinating to me and some of the comments I’ve been getting have been making me think more about it. One of the common themes is surprise at just how negligent the Bennets were at saving, instead of merely being stretched thin by expenses. I understand this completely, as it isn’t something that’s explicit in an easily recognisable way for modern audiences.

So, where could they have been more economical? They don’t go to London, no one has a gambling addiction, all travelling (which was EXPENSIVE) is done cost effectively, and they certainly didn’t spend all the money on tutors and the like for their daughters. I’m sure there’s actual academic papers by historians on this (I miss my uni access to those so much) but I can take some educated guesses.

You do really have to wonder where they have been spending all that money, especially when the girls were young (nursemaids were cheap and baby clothes would be handed down). Was Mrs. Bennet just spending a lot more on herself?

I'm wondering if taxes and/or inflation would have gone up during the time the girls were growing up. According to Wikipedia, an income tax was introduced in 1803, and abolished in 1816 (after the war was over). There had also been a tax from 1798 to 1802. Inflation was also at least somewhat volatile between 1790 and 1815 (see Hume's article below).

Austen started writing P&P in 1796, but significantly revised it in 1811-1812, and since she didn't include a disclaimer about it being out of date the way she did with Northanger Abbey, I'd guess that she meant it to be more or less contemporary. Jane is I think 22 or 23? So say the novel is set in 1811, she would have been born around 1789, before the first income tax. .

I do have access to academic databases, so I did a little searching on JSTOR and found this article, which talks about income and economics in all of Jane Austen's full novels, but focuses heavily on Pride and Prejudice:

Hume goes deeper into taxes and inflation, which were both apparently pretty high. He also mentions that the Bennets have a pretty large number of servants-- at least 5 household servants not including kitchen staff, plus they would have needed servants to drive the carriage and take care of the upkeep on the estate, in addition to farm workers. Even with labor being fairly cheap at the time, that's still a pretty large staff.

However, despite those expenses, he argues that Mr. Bennet's income would have made the Bennet family very well off, and that Mr. Bennet should have been able to save at least 20% of his annual income for the sake of emergencies and his daughters' futures.

Thank you so much for finding and sharing that resource! Such a good read. I actually used a lot of his stats and research when talking other times about how Mr Bennet failed his family and making my estimates, but it was from remembering Hume from studying Austen at uni and getting the information again from essays which reference the work, rather than having access to the original. I'm glad I get it to save it to my essay folder now! Anything about finances in Pride and Prejudice or the reality of Elizabeth's financial situation is a favourite topic of mine - to no one's surprise. I mean, this post is an author's note of a fic where I literally use the sudden risk of Mr Bennet dying just after the Netherfield Ball, and the financial implications, as the justification for the premise, haha. I'm always happy to read more research about it.

This post is actually second in a bit of a series I occasionally do about finances in Pride and Prejudice in the author's notes. I'm not making any claims to being particularly academic and it's certainly not equal to peer-reviewed essays, I'm just helping to give context about the financial aspects that modern readers don't necessarily understand the same way contemporary readers would have. Also, I just enjoy applying maths to the amounts they could be saving and see what we end up with. The first part here was actually begun by a throw away comment about how much the Bennets would need to have saved to give the girls £10,000 a piece and then delves into what would be suitable dowries for their position, and how much money they would have if their parents had annually saved £450, £200, £100, or even only the interest of the £5,000 settlement. It mentions they're in the top 1% and slightly touches on Mr Bennet's personal culpability towards not providing for his family. (Small note for anyone who's new to my maths: I assume Jane Austen always listed the profits of estate incomes, not simply revenue. The only amount I believe we have clarity for in any of her book's is Darcy's £10,000/y, which, as Wickham calls it 'clear' means that's the amount remaining after all expenses necessary for the maintenance of the estate.)

The 40% of income put into savings (though I suppose the half that is meant for emergencies could be a similar amount to what the Bennets were spending on that purpose, just without explicitly saving for it) that Trusler recommends is new to me, as is some of the others referenced. Even Hume's recommendation of 20% is more than I expected. I've been treating 10% as the recommended (which, with reinvesting Mrs Bennet's settlement, in the 4%s comes to £19,647 total for her and the girls at the start of the novel), based on the 1823 'A New System of Practical Domestic Economy'. A blog post which sums up the relevant bits for Austen fans is here and I very much recommend checking it out. The book isn't a perfect contemporary, but it's certainly close enough to be useful and comparative to others Hume references. I love seeing the variety of different opinions on respectable savings, and how similar it is to the variation of advice we receive today. Humans are humans and will always have different opinions.

Luckily, I don't have to determine which is the most realistic for the Bennets income or respectable in the eyes of society, I just get to do more MATHS!

Assuming Hume's (and Trusler's, if we exclude the half of his 40% which is meant for emergencies) 20% of the income saved, over 23 years in the 4%s, we get:

If we do Trusler's 40% and presume, through some impossibly good luck we're indulging the existence of purely for funsies, the 20% saved for emergencies was never needed and so contributes to the girls dowries, using those same stipulations, we have:

Of course, those last three amounts would never happen. But interesting to see that, with Trusler's view on economical savings, an amount somewhere between the first three and last three is possible if the emergency fund always had something left over at the end of the year. (Though, I imagine Mrs Bennet would soon, if she doesn't already, grow to consider a lack of new gowns and cushions an emergency).

Also, I'm so sorry, Skarabrae, since I want everyone to see this link your reply is being used as the base for me adding extra information for everyone and answering some things I saw pop up in the notes. No good deed goes unpunished.

#i actually have a draft post on tumblr that talks more about Mr Bennet's failures in a way very reminiscent of that article#and discusses how his flaws are softened to modern readers whilst his virtues are even more prominent but it's the opposite for Mrs Bennet (via @taradactyls)

Pride & Prejudice (2005) dir. Joe Wright Eternals (2021) dir. Chloé Zhao Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) dir. George Miller Spirited Away (2001) dir. Hayao Miyazaki The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) dir. Peter Jackson WALL·E (2008) dir. Andrew Stanton Pacific Rim (2013) dir. Guillermo del Toro Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) dir. George Miller Happy Together (1997) dir. Wong Kar-wai Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) dir. Wes Ball Bones and All (2022) dir. Luca Guadagnino Your Name Engraved Herein (2020) dir. Patrick Kuang-Hui Liu

Pride and Prejudice (2005) + facts | part 2

One of the many reasons this movie is a masterpiece is that Joe Wright allowed for happy accidents like this. It's difficult for me to think of other films that have such rich background action or subtle reaction shots as this one. Instead of concentrating only on dialogue, he keeps the cameras running long enough to pick up all the nonverbal acting, and then actually USED it in the final edit. DIRECTORS DON'T DO THAT ANY MORE.

Dang this movie is so good.

Pride and Prejudice 1995 text posts, part 4 of ?

More: Sense and Sensibility 1995 text posts | Northanger Abbey 2007 text posts | Emma. 2020 text posts

Pride and Prejudice 1995 text posts, part 3 of ?

More: Sense and Sensibility 1995 text posts | Northanger Abbey 2007 text posts | Emma. 2020 text posts

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2005) dir. Joe Wright

Reading pride and prejudice for like the 10th time and what still makes me insane is when Elizabeth and Darcy are together in Kent, Darcy falls more in love with her every day while Lizzy despises him more every day. It's all like

Mr Darcy, internally: wow she truly doesn't give a fuck about my aunt, she will not let herself be intimidated, she stays true to her authentic self plus she plays piano and her eyes are pretty what a woman

meanwhile Lizzy is like: I'VE BEEN HAVING THE WORST TIME IN MY LIFE FOR THE LAST 3 WEEKS AND NOW I ALSO HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS ASSHOLE

Reading pride and prejudice for like the 10th time and what still makes me insane is when Elizabeth and Darcy are together in Kent, Darcy falls more in love with her every day while Lizzy despises him more every day. It's all like

Mr Darcy, internally: wow she truly doesn't give a fuck about my aunt, she will not let herself be intimidated, she stays true to her authentic self plus she plays piano and her eyes are pretty what a woman

meanwhile Lizzy is like: I'VE BEEN HAVING THE WORST TIME IN MY LIFE FOR THE LAST 3 WEEKS AND NOW I ALSO HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS ASSHOLE

Pride and Prejudice 1995 text posts, part 1 of ?

More: Sense and Sensibility 1995 text posts | Northanger Abbey 2007 text posts | Emma. 2020 text posts

What do we think happened when Mr. and Mrs. Collins showed up at Lady Catherine's house to drink tea and explained that Elizabeth stayed at home alone with a headache?

Did Darcy excuse himself immediately? That would have looked super suspicious, at least to Charlotte. Not that I think he would have cared if anyone guessed what he was going to do, because he was certain Elizabeth would say yes, so in his mind, they're all going to know about the proposal in like an hour anyway.

Or did Darcy drink tea with the group for maybe 10 minutes, hyping himself up to go propose—now's your chance, you can do this!—and then abruptly be like "Well thanks for the tea! See ya!" and rush out of there? This would also be very confusing to his companions, though maybe not as suspicious. Is this more or less rude than excusing himself from tea right at the beginning? It seems more rude to my modern sensibilities, but who knows.

I feel another P&P missing scene ficlet coming on...

tags by @lady-larklight absolutely sent me. this was Darcy:

I made this silly chart because sometimes I see people posting "If they ever make another P&P movie..." and there is no question of if, only when. The story is in the public domain and people love it, so it's a no-brainer to keep remaking it forever and ever. The only shocking thing is how long it's been since we've had the last one! New P&P let's goooo!

(*I only counted English-language adaptations that take place in period, so not modern versions, or re-imaginings with zombies or anything like that. Not that I dislike those, they're just not what I'm talking about here. If they ever make one with Muppets, though, I'm counting it.)

Oh, @firawren have you seen FIRE ISLAND (2022)?!?

Here’s the trailer: https://youtu.be/ASN_qGMUREY?si=uCXTFRrwj1OHr820

Here’s an article discussing it: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna31606

I love P&P, including P&P&Z, but haven't seen this adaptation yet... have you? Did you enjoy it?

Push play and just trust me

This sounds like something that would be playing in a story set in Victorian London slums or something? I DON’T KNOW.

an underrated detail in pride and prejudice is that elizabeth bennett was home alone on the day darcy proposed because she had a headache. can you imagine. this was in the pre-painkillers era. you're at home with a headache and then this asshole walks into the room and tells you he loves you and wants to marry you even though he hates your whole family and you're beneath him. imagine having to deal with that while also having a headache. she doesn't even have ibuprofen

#if she'd been at full health darcy wouldn’t have made it out alive (via @but-the-library-of-alexandria)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that boys still have not learned this lesson.

Happy birthday Pride and Prejudice!

Pride and Prejudice (2005) + tumblr posts (part 1)