Sixty-One Chapters
Full spoilers ahead, so if you have not finished Jane Austen’s novel, pause here and come back. This is the whole book, chapter by chapter, and while I read I kept three tallies: proposals, letters and money.
Here is the headline. There are sixty-one chapters and five proposals. Mr. Collins makes two, Mr. Darcy makes two, and Mr. Bingley makes one, and two of the five happen offstage. Elizabeth Bennet changes her mind about Mr. Darcy in chapter thirty-six, alone on a country lane, with a letter in her hand.
My shorter plot summary is linked below. This is the numbered version.
Chapters One to Twelve
In chapter one, Mrs. Bennet tells her husband that Netherfield has been let to a single man with four or five thousand a year. Chapter three is the Meryton assembly. Mr. Bingley dances with Jane twice. Mr. Darcy dances only twice, once with each of Bingley’s sisters, and tells his friend that Elizabeth is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt him. She overhears every word.
In chapter four we learn that Bingley inherited nearly a hundred thousand pounds, and each of his sisters has twenty thousand. In chapter six, Darcy begins to find that Elizabeth’s dark eyes make her face uncommonly intelligent, while she turns down a dance with him.
Chapter seven is the rain. Mrs. Bennet sends Jane to Netherfield on horseback, because rain is likely and then Jane must stay the night. Jane falls ill, and Elizabeth walks three miles, alone, to nurse her. Chapters eight to twelve stay at Netherfield. Darcy writes a letter to his sister in chapter ten, and in chapter eleven he says that his good opinion, once lost, is lost forever.
Chapters Thirteen to Twenty-Three
Chapter thirteen brings the first letter on my tally, from Mr. Collins, the cousin who will inherit Longbourn. In chapter fifteen a charming officer, Mr. Wickham, arrives in Meryton. In chapter sixteen he tells Elizabeth that Darcy cheated him of a church living, and she believes him. Remember that. It is one man’s word, and nobody checks it.
Chapter eighteen is the Netherfield ball. Wickham does not come. Darcy asks Elizabeth to dance, and she says yes before she knows what she is doing. During the dance she asks him whether he is ever blinded by prejudice. Chapter nineteen is the first proposal. Mr. Collins gives three reasons for marrying, one of them his patroness’s advice, and Elizabeth refuses him again and again.
In chapter twenty, Mr. Bennet tells her that her mother will never see her again if she refuses, and that he will never see her again if she accepts. In chapter twenty-one, Caroline Bingley writes that the whole party has gone to London. In chapter twenty-two, Charlotte Lucas accepts Mr. Collins. That is the second proposal, and the book says she takes him solely for an establishment.
The Money Ledger
Here is the first ledger, because the money explains the panic. Chapter seven says Mr. Bennet has an estate of two thousand a year, and that it is entailed, so it goes to a distant relation. Mrs. Bennet brought four thousand pounds. Elizabeth’s own portion, as Mr. Collins mentions in chapter nineteen, is one thousand pounds, which she gets only after her mother dies.
Now the men. Darcy has ten thousand a year, says the rumor in chapter three, and Wickham says the same in chapter sixteen. Mrs. Bennet claims Bingley has four or five thousand a year. Darcy’s sister Georgiana has thirty thousand pounds, a figure Darcy gives in chapter thirty-five. And in chapter twenty-six, the girl Wickham turns to, Miss King, suddenly gets ten thousand pounds.
Read the list again and you can see why Mrs. Bennet is frantic. An estate that brings two thousand a year goes to Mr. Collins, and chapter fifty says the family has only five thousand pounds settled on Mrs. Bennet and the children.
Chapters Twenty-Four to Thirty-Four
Chapters twenty-four to twenty-six: Jane learns that Bingley is staying in London, goes there herself, and gets a cold welcome from Caroline. Wickham drops Elizabeth for Miss King. In chapter twenty-seven, Elizabeth goes to Kent to stay with Charlotte, now Mrs. Collins, near Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
In chapter thirty, Darcy arrives at Rosings with his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and keeps meeting Elizabeth on her walks. In chapter thirty-three the colonel mentions, with no name, that Darcy saved a friend from a most imprudent marriage. Elizabeth works out that he means Bingley and Jane.
Then chapter thirty-four, the third proposal. Darcy says, in vain I have struggled, and then spends the speech on how far beneath him her family is. Elizabeth refuses. She says he is the last man in the world she could marry, and she charges him with two things: parting Bingley from Jane, and ruining Wickham.
The Letter, Chapters Thirty-Five and Thirty-Six
Chapter thirty-five is Darcy’s letter, handed to her in a lane the next morning, two sheets written close. On Jane, he says he believed she did not care for Bingley, and he admits he hid from Bingley that she was in London. On Wickham, he says old Mr. Darcy left Wickham a legacy of one thousand pounds and wanted him to have a church living. Wickham took three thousand pounds instead, and later asked for the living anyway.
The letter then turns to Georgiana. Wickham, it says, planned to elope with her when she was fifteen, for her fortune of thirty thousand pounds. Elizabeth reads it, puts it away, and reads it again.
Chapter thirty-six is the turn. She sees that Wickham’s story was only his word, that he told it to a stranger, and that he skipped the ball. She calls herself blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd, and says, till this moment I never knew myself. That is chapter thirty-six, the answer to my hook.
Chapters Thirty-Seven to Forty-Seven
In chapters thirty-seven to forty, Darcy and the colonel leave Kent, and Elizabeth goes home by way of London. She tells Jane about the proposal and about Wickham, but not the part about Bingley. In chapter forty-one, the regiment is bound for Brighton, and Mr. Bennet lets Lydia go, because she is luckily too poor to be an object of prey.
Chapter forty-three is Pemberley. Elizabeth tours it with her aunt and uncle, the Gardiners, after making sure the family is away. The housekeeper says she has never heard a cross word from Darcy, and then he arrives a day early. In chapter forty-four he brings his sister Georgiana to meet her, and Bingley comes too.
Chapter forty-six is the cliff. Two letters from Jane arrive together. Lydia has run off from Brighton with Wickham. Darcy walks in while Elizabeth is reading, she tells him everything, and he leaves quickly. Chapter forty-seven is the drive home.
Chapters Forty-Eight to Fifty-Two
These chapters are the Lydia ledger, and the book hides the answer until chapter fifty-one. In chapter forty-nine, Mr. Gardiner writes to Mr. Bennet: the couple are found, not married, and Lydia is to have her equal share of the five thousand pounds, plus one hundred pounds a year from her father. Everyone assumes Mr. Gardiner paid the rest, and Mr. Bennet says he must repay his brother.
Then, in chapter fifty-one, Lydia lets slip that Mr. Darcy was at her wedding. In chapter fifty-two, Mrs. Gardiner’s letter explains. Darcy traced Wickham through Mrs. Younge, saw him and Lydia, and insisted on doing it all himself. By her account the bill is Wickham’s debts, which were considerably more than a thousand pounds, another thousand added to Lydia’s settlement, and the price of a commission.
So that is the ledger. Mr. Bennet’s share is one hundred pounds a year, and chapter fifty says he is barely ten pounds a year out of pocket. Darcy’s share is everything else, and it was meant to be a secret.
Chapters Fifty-Three to Sixty-One
In chapter fifty-three, Bingley comes back to Netherfield with Darcy. Chapter fifty-five holds the fourth proposal, and it happens offstage. Elizabeth finds Bingley and Jane standing by the fire, and Jane says she is the happiest creature in the world. Mr. Bennet says the couple will always exceed their income, and Mrs. Bennet answers that Bingley has four or five thousand a year.
Chapter fifty-six brings Lady Catherine to Longbourn in a chaise and four. She demands that Elizabeth promise never to marry Darcy. Elizabeth says she is not engaged, and refuses to promise anything. In chapter fifty-seven, Mr. Bennet reads out a second letter from Mr. Collins warning of Lady Catherine’s displeasure.
Chapter fifty-eight is the fifth proposal, and it happens on a walk in Hertfordshire, not at Pemberley. Elizabeth thanks Darcy for helping Lydia. He says that if her feelings are what they were last April she should tell him so, because his affections and wishes are unchanged. This time she says yes, and he tells her Lady Catherine’s visit taught him to hope.
Chapter fifty-nine, Mr. Bennet gives his consent and says Darcy deserves her. Chapter sixty is the teasing. Chapter sixty-one is the epilogue. Jane and Elizabeth marry, Lydia writes asking for money, and Darcy helps Wickham in his profession but will not receive him at Pemberley. The Gardiners stay close friends.
The Count
Now my other tallies. By my count, the words letter and letters appear one hundred thirty-two times, led by chapter forty-six with eleven.
The title words are lopsided. Pride, proud and their relatives appear seventy-two times, and fourteen of those are in chapter sixteen, the Wickham chapter. Prejudice, in any form, appears eight times in all sixty-one chapters. The first is Elizabeth’s question to Darcy in chapter eighteen. The next two are Elizabeth, in chapter thirty-six.
I counted in the ebook text I used, leaving out the table of contents and the chapter headings.
My Reading
My reading, and it is an opinion. The five proposals show what each person is after. Collins wants a wife on his patroness’s advice, Charlotte wants an establishment, and Darcy, the first time, wants Elizabeth in spite of his own pride. In my view only the second Darcy proposal comes from someone who has changed first.
Also in my view, the money ledger is why the Lydia chapters matter. Darcy pays for a marriage he despises, and he does it quietly. Elizabeth’s change of mind in chapter thirty-six has a partner, and it is his change by chapter fifty-eight.
For the full page, visit the Pride and Prejudice page on book explained dot com. Subscribe, tap like, and tell me in the comments which of the five proposals is your favorite, and which chapter you would reread first.
