I fear she might be. There has been much hype surrounding the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride & Prejudice this year, with the media endlessly banging on about how proud we should be of Austen’s most celebrated work of fiction. But I’m not so sure.
BB’s granny gave her a Little Miss Austen children’s version of the aforementioned tome for Christmas (pictured), purportedly a counting book from one to ten. But it’s the underlying message that alarms me.
It starts innocently enough, with number one representing ‘1 English village’. Nothing wrong with that. But then it starts to get more worrying. Number two represents ‘2 rich gentleman’ (below), number three ‘3 houses’ (mansions in fact), number four ‘4 marriage proposals’ (three of which involve Elizabeth Bennet, by the way), number seven ‘7 soldiers in uniform’, number nine ‘9 fancy ball gowns’ and number ten ‘10,000 pounds a year’.
What is this telling her, exactly? That she should aspire to find a rich man with a huge house who will provide for her, get him to propose a couple of times while she parties with men in uniform dressed up to the nines in expensive dresses, while at the same time making sure that this man has an income of at least £10,000 a year.
I’m afraid she’ll be sorely disappointed. Not least because there’s no way £10,000 a year will buy any of those things.
LOL I hear you but as an Austen fan myself while I indulged in reading her books, even went as far as visiting her house in Bath when I moved to London to live. I never had any notion that I’d find a man like Mr Darcy. He is the thing of romantic tales to dream about smile and swoon, escape for a while until. You daughter will one day come to learn that for herself fingers crossed with no major broken heart along they way :0) Don’t worry too much about it.