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Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
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Monday, January 15, 2007

Thoughts on Bingley -- part 1 -- Chapter 3

At the beginning of chapter three, we finally have the opportunity to meet Mr. Bingley, or at least to catch a glimpse of him. Amusingly, the universally acknowledged truth of chapter one, that "a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife", is apparently not lost on Bingley. He visits Mr. Bennet, entertaining "hopes of being admitted to a sight of the young ladies, of whose beauty he had heard much; but he saw only the father." (A smart move on the part of the father, I think.) To see the girls, Bingley must wait until the ball.

(The beginning of this chapter brings to mind a question that we had entertained earlier: Had Bingley actually occupied Netherfield in the hopes of finding a suitable wife?)