Smakebit på søndag: Mr. Darcy's Diary

Bild lånad från bokus

Dags för söndagssmakbit igen och jag hoppas att det kan bli knuffen som behövs för mig att ta hand om min blogg igen. Har varit mycket annat nu och det blir inte mycket skrivet är jag rädd. Jag har just läst ut Mr. Darcy's Diary av Amanda Granger och det finns en hel del jag gillar med den, är ju väldigt svag för Austens Pride and Prejudice och att få se hur känslorna växer fram för Mr. Darcys är riktigt roligt, men det tänkta dagboksskrivandet är ganska klumpigt genomfört tyvärr. Det blir tre smakbitar idag, alla om hans första frieri till Elizabeth.

Först ett litet utdrag från själva frieriet:
     ‘I have felt all the impossibility of such a match these many weeks. My reason revolts against it, nay, my very nature revolts against it. I know that I am lowering myself in making such an offer. I am wounding both family connections and family pride. That I should entertain such feelings for someone so far beneath me is a weakness I despise, and yet I cannot conquer my feelings.' 

Sen ett där man får läsa om hans reaktion när hon tackar nej:
I felt an intense shock. If I had behaved in a more gentleman-like manner? When had I ever been anything but a gentleman? 
     ‘You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it,’ she said. 
     I could not believe it. She could never have accepted my hand? Never accept a connection with the Darcy family? Never accept all the benefits that would accrue to her as my wife? It was madness. And to blame it, not on my manner, but on my person! I looked at her with open incredulity. I, who had been courted in drawing rooms the length and breadth of the land!

Och slutligen ett där han berättar om det hela för sin kusin:
In the briefest of terms I told him of what had passed; that I had proposed to Elizabeth and been refused.
     ‘Refused?’ He broke in at that. ‘Good God, what can you have said to her to make her refuse you?’
     ‘Nothing. I said only what any sensible man would have said,’ I replied. ‘I told her of the struggle I had had in overlooking the inferiority of her connections, the objectionable behaviour of her family, the lowness of her situation in life – ’
     ‘Only what any sensible man would have said?’ he asked in surprise. ‘Darcy, this is not like you. You cannot have so mismanaged it. To insult a woman and then to expect her to marry you?’
     I was surprised at his reaction. ‘I spoke nothing but the truth.’

Fler smakbitar hittar man på Maris blogg.