All language subtitles for Jane.Austen.Rise.Of.A.Genius.S01E01.WEB.H264-RBB

Jane Austen is Britain's most celebrated
female novelist.

She left behind timeless masterpieces,
including Pride and Prejudice, Sense and

Sensibility, and Emma, revealing the
inner lives of men and women in a way

that still speaks to us today.

But getting into her own mind isn't
easy.

In her lifetime, Austen wrote thousands
of letters to her beloved sister,

Cassandra, sharing her innermost thought
of Jane's death at the age of just 41.

Her sister burned them.

We had to ask Cassandra why.

What was at risk there?

In the letters, she could be a lot of
upset.

But a handful of letters survived.

we can piece her extraordinary life back
together.

Jane Austen was a writer teeming with
new ideas who revealed profound truths

about the world she lived in.

There is writing before Austen, and
there is writing after Austen. That

achievement is enormous.

Jane Austen is the greatest comic
novelist we have ever produced.

At a time when women were supposed to
know their place, Jane ripped up the

rule book.

She's not just writing about romance.

We should see her as a political
novelist.

She's telling young women, I see you and
I hear you, which I think is such a

modern thing.

Austen's life is a tale of ambition.

struggle and tragedy a genius cut down
in her prime she's really good at

the light the ironic the beautifully
observed and then life drives a truck

into that this is the story of how a
self-taught country girl from a

hampshire village defied the conventions
of her day to become one of the greatest

novelists who ever lived

Her voice is so strong and funny and
perceptive. And her work's still being

copied and stolen by people like me.

She did what she wanted to do, and it
makes me feel like I can always do what

I want to do.

1793.

King George III is on the throne.

It's an age of trade, slavery, and
empire, where vast fortunes are being

made.

It's also a time of danger, with the
risk of destitution and the poorhouse,

where your position at birth dictates
the shape of your life.

But that world is starting to change.

Ideas of progress and equality are
breaking down old assumptions.

And for those who take the risk,
opportunities are there to be had.

Jane Austen is 17 years old.

She's grown up in the village of
Steventon in Hampshire with six brothers

and one older sister, Cassandra.

Jane is in a sort of perfect Petri dish
for a writer in that she's got a lot of

siblings, a lot of brothers.

So there's a huge amount of stimulation
and fun.

Lots of things to talk about, things to
see, things to watch going on.

And her siblings will become her first
fully realised characters.

Her father, George, is the clergyman of
the village.

The job doesn't pay well, but it does
come with a home.

They don't own the place they live in.
Nonetheless, as a rector, he has social

status. Doesn't have any money, though.

And he is using multiple jobs to try to
make ends meet.

They have just enough money, but there's
always the risk that they could sink

downwards.

This is the worry that hangs over the
heads of the Austins.

The Austin family may not be rich, but
they do have something of value.

It's a modest home, but most
importantly, it's got a library.

It contains some 500 books.

This is unusual. It's remarkable for a
family with limited finances to have

this many books.

And the library is full of these ideas.

You've got the great classics of the
time, history, this world of literature,

this world of politics.

It's at her fingertips.

And there's an inspiring new kind of
book on her father's shelf, the novel.

a form of writing which takes the reader
into the worlds of vivid fictional

characters.

Of course, all of this is fuel for her
future genius.

This is where she's made, in this
library.

From childhood, Jane's love of reading
fuels an obsession with writing stories

of her own.

We know that from a very young age, Jane
is writing these exuberant, energetic,

satirical little skits.

She's very funny, she's very witty.

They're full of people falling down dead
drunk, especially women.

They're just about what women should get
up to or not get up to.

One of Austen's earliest known stories
is titled... the beautiful Cassandra.

Jane hero-worships her sister.

Famously, her mother said if Cassandra
was going to have her head cut off, Jane

would have her head cut off too. She's
obsessed with Cassandra.

The heroine is a mischievous adventurer
who storms around London causing

trouble.

When Cassandra had attained her 16th
year, she was lovely and amiable.

She then proceeded to... Jane to have
girls...

punching pastry chefs and watching
people falling over drunk.

You can see that she is being playful at
full.

But as a young woman in Georgian
Britain, Austen's options are limited.

Women in the 1790s have no rights. What
little education has afforded them is

really just training for being a wife.

Girls are expected to live a life of
domestic obedience as wives and mother.

And so Jane finds herself a chess piece
to be moved around the board to support

other family members, to help with
birth, marriages and deaths, as is

convenient to the family.

16th of December, 1793.

Jane has been sent to Southampton.

Southampton is a very busy port.

It has that kind of rough and ready
vibe.

You're seeing all sorts of different
nationalities, people of colour, men and

women.

Sailors, soldiers, mercenaries.

All different classes mingling in these
hustling, bustling spaces.

As a young woman and as a writer, this
is incredibly exciting and she's storing

up these experiences like any creative
person.

It's Jane's 18th birthday, but she's not
here to celebrate.

She's here to help her cousin Elizabeth,
who is going into labour.

To be dispatched to support the birth of
a family member with no experience, no

real understanding of what's going on.

I mean, talk about being chucked into
the deep end.

The reality of giving birth in Georgian
England is messy, it's bloody, it's

dangerous. A woman can die and the baby
can die.

Four of Jane's relatives die in
childbirth.

To see that at 18 must have been
mind-blowing.

She would not have discounted the fact
that this was going to be her fate too.

Jane Austen is... probably looking at
this woman and thinking about her own

life, thinking, is this what I want?

We know that Jane Austen can be very,
very savage, very, very brutal.

There's an excruciating moment in one of
the letters where there's a searingly

cruel comment about a woman who has a
miscarriage. Jane Austen commented that

the woman miscarried because her husband
was so ugly, she took one look at him

and aborted.

I mean, that's horrible.

You know, these are the kind of awful
things that sisters would say to each

other in confidence.

Jane wants to be more than just marriage
and childbirth material.

Then, in 1794, she encounters a new kind
of role model.

Cousin Eliza is big news.

She's just this fabulous creature that
swans into Stevenson, bringing with her

the whole hinterland of exotic,
mysterious, fabulous and foreign

excitement.

Eliza had been married to a nobleman.

During the French Revolution, he'd been
arrested and thrown into jail.

But worse followed.

Her husband has been guillotined.

And she relates this to Jane Austen.

It's one thing to know that the French
Revolution has taken place and that it's

tipped over into bloodshed and chaos.

It's quite another to have that
presence, that bloodshed, walk right

through your door and tell it to your
face.

Can you imagine being told this news
while Eliza's there?

It causes her so much fear, it sort of
seeps into her subconscious.

As well as these tales of horror, Eliza
brings radical new ideas.

Eliza gives Jane Austen books.

She said, women will not be put down any
longer.

Statements that would have been such a
huge influence on how Jane Austen

perceived women's rights.

And this is catnip for Jane Austen.

I mean, like any teenage girl, when a
cooler, slightly older woman walks into

the room, that's kind of electrifying.

The unfortunate death of her husband
leads to some interesting possibilities.

Jane sees a widow as someone with a
certain amount of freedom. You are your

own woman with your own means and
resources and you are able to do what

you would like to do with those.

And if that means you want to sleep with
other men, you do it. It gives women of

the time a certain amount of freedom
that maybe Jane had never witnessed

before or never thought existed.

I think we can't underestimate the
excitement to her fizzing, curious mind

of this astonishing figure that's
travelled around, that's been in a

revolution. She's had sex.

She's got money.

You know, could this be the beginnings
of a character that she might want to

explore?

Inspired by the presence of cousin
Eliza, Jane Austen writes her first long

-form work.

Lady Susan tells the story of a recently
widowed seductress who is looking for a

new husband.

Lady Susan is beautiful, she's clever,
she's manipulative, and she knows how

to get what she wants.

She is a force of nature, and she is
just doing what she needs to do to

survive. Lady Susan.

Lady Susan has a problem.

A teenage daughter who she needs to
marry off.

She arranges for a wealthy but dim
suitor to visit them at Churchill Manor.

Churchill.

That's how you say it.

All together like that.

Churchill.

Oh, well, that explains a lot. You see,
I'd heard church and hill, but couldn't

find either. All I could see was this
big house.

I played Sir James Martin.

He's a fucking idiot, but he's a
likeable fucking idiot.

He walks through life with his gold
shoes on, going, isn't this marvellous?

How jolly.

Tiny green balls.

Mmm. Yes.

Good tasting.

Quite sweet.

What are they called?

Peas. Oh, yes. No, I knew that.

To honour means, among other things, to
listen with respect to a parent's

sincere counsel.

When her daughter tries to reject Sir
James, Lady Susan callously ignores her

feelings and piles on the pressure.

An offer as splendid as Sir James's is
not likely to come around again.

He has offered you the one thing he has
the value to give.

His income.

It's very funny, because her attitude to
her daughter is just so awful, and she

is the world's worst mother.

The destitute.

Is that what you want?

No.

I can see Sir James is a kind man, and
if it weren't a matter of marriage, I'm

sure I could like him.

But marriages were one's whole life.

Not in my experience.

Lady Susan is the hand grenade that Jane
Austen is lobbing into Georgian society.

Women are meant to present in a certain
way.

And she did away with all of that. And
she created complex, three-dimensional

characters who had massive flaws,
massive contradictions.

And this... was written by a teenage
girl.

It's unfathomable.

Lady Susan's plan fails, and she shows
her true nature as she rails against her

own daughter.

If my daughter were not the greatest
simpleton on earth, she'd be engaged to

him now. What?

She refused him.

A baronet with 10,000 a year feels so
provoking. This is your daughter.

It's one of the moments where we go...

Oh, no, she isn't. No, she is a nasty
piece of work, actually, isn't she?

In the end, Lady Susan marries her
daughter off happily to another

aristocrat.

And she takes the risk. Precocious
talent is not the word for it.

She is a rebellious modern spirit.

She's just standing up for women as
human beings.

and refusing to bow to the oppressive
stereotype.

It will be years before Lady Susan
reaches a reading public.

For now Jane's only audience is her
family.

Girls like her aren't expected to have
careers.

unlike her brothers.

War brings opportunities for the Austin
boys.

Henry joins the militia, while Frank and
Charles serve in the Navy.

The Navy, of course, supported you and
made all your provisions.

The other great joy of the Navy was it
opens people's horizons.

And as a young officer, you were part of
it.

The Royal Navy at that stage was
charting the world.

We were leading this scientific
research.

But even better than that, if you were
lucky and competent, you could make an

immense amount of money.

Jane Austen, of course, was privy to all
of this life at sea because of the

letters from her brothers. This was like
a window, a ray of light, showing her

what was going on in all these places.
And being as bright as she was, she

absorbed this and understood it and
learnt about it, and I think she used it

in what she wrote.

But it must have been quite frustrating
sometimes for Jane Austen. The

opportunities available for a genteel
middle-class woman were about zero.

But Jane has one person who believes in
her, her father.

I do think that George Austen recognised
that his daughter was something special.

She is writing in a different way. She
is thinking in a different way to

everybody else.

He clearly valued her for who she was
and for her intelligence.

There is that total acceptance and
support for her.

To encourage his daughter, on Jane's
19th birthday, he buys her a special

gift. He gives her a... portable writing
desk that he's bought from a

cabinetmaker in Basingstoke.

An investment in her talent for writing.

I mean, she's only 19.

It's almost impossible to imagine what
this would have meant to her.

It gives her permission to be an author.
That's what he gives her.

Despite her father's approval, with no
family money to fall back on, Jane is

still expected to find a husband to
support her.

And a traditional place for meeting a
man is the ballroom.

The Georgian marriage market is a very
ruthless place. It was important for

people to like one another in a
marriage, but more important was their

social standing.

and courtship will be watched,
eagle-eyed, by both families.

I think the pressure was enormous.

Balls aren't just for husband hunting.

They are also an opportunity for young
people to let loose.

The party goes on until the candles burn
out, sometimes until 6am.

The dancing can be so relentless, guests
bleed through their shoes.

Ladies use their fans as cheat sheets,
concealing the latest dance moves.

To get ready for one of these balls is a
real deal.

You've got to wear corsets, you've got
to have your hair done in a certain way.

You are there to be seen.

If you look at their dresses, they're
really low-cut with heaving bosoms.

And the dancers were... I mean, no-one
was grinding or twerking, but they were

very sexual.

Jane wants to be a writer, but she also
loves going to balls.

And she's a wonderful dancer.

Men want to dance with her.

She's just excited and happy.

So she's having the time of her life.

In December 1795, at the Hampshire
County Christmas Ball, Jane locks eyes

with a handsome Irishman.

His name is Tom LaFroy.

He's connected to one of her best
friends, Madame LaFroy. So he's not a...

And I think she really genuinely has a
big crush on him. And he has a crush on

her.

Austin writes about her feelings to her
sister, Cassandra, in her earliest

surviving letter.

This is a really exciting moment.

We hear her voice. We're inside her head
for the first time.

It's such an intimate conversation she's
having.

My dear Cassandra, I'm almost afraid to
tell you how I behaved.

Imagine for yourself everything most
profligate and shocking in the way of

dancing and sitting down together. He is
a very gentleman-like, good-looking,

pleasant young man.

I think Jane's being very naughty here.

Sitting with someone for a long time was
one thing. Sitting too close with them,

holding their hands, touching wasn't
done at all, so it sounds like it's

getting all a little bit heady.

She definitely fancies him.

There's just one problem.

The LaFroy family don't think Jane's
family come up to scratch. They don't

have enough money, they're not going to
make a good match and therefore they're

forced to part.

When Tom's family decided this was not a
good idea, she

feels that she's perhaps not good
enough.

She's not even there to say, I reject
you.

The choice is taken away from her.

And she has a strong sense of pride.

She feels the fact that she doesn't have
a lot of money. She feels it deeply.

All sorts of emotions would have been
running around her at this particular

moment.

Feeling a lack of voice, a lack of
autonomy.

That she's powerless in this situation.

She writes this really beautiful letter
to Cassandra.

The first thing we see is her amazing
sense of tragic irony.

At length, the day has come on which I
am to flirt my last with Tom LaFroy.

And when you receive this, it will be
over.

My tears flow as I write at the
melancholy idea.

My tears flow at the melancholy idea.

I love the fact that she's so dry and
ironic in the way she describes her own

reactions.

This is typical Jane Austen, sort of
expressing something and then putting it

in perspective and slightly laughing at
herself.

So we see her here aping the sentimental
heroine who's been let down.

She's mocking herself.

But I really do believe that behind that
there is a genuine sense of hurt and

disappointment.

Bruised by the Tom LaFroy affair, Austen
channels her frustration into a new

novel that she calls First Impressions.

She finishes a draft at the age of just
21.

Her father, George, is captivated.

He decides it's time to approach a
publisher.

George Austin is making a great vote of
faith in the abilities of his daughter.

He's very ambitious for her.

He realises that this is a publishable
novel. He realises that it could be a

success.

That must have been a huge boost,
because up until that point, she has

read to her family, they've all listened
to these first novels, but he is the

person.

In the captioning techniques and rising
literacy rates mean business is booming.

To drive profits, books are sold in
multiple volumes, so readers have to pay

to read each new instalment.

and publishers are on the lookout for
the next big hit.

Rejection. All writers keep their
rejection slips, those first knockbacks.

It's despicable to be rejected.

The publisher has sent George Austin's
letter back with a line saying, declined

by return of post.

They haven't even read it.

I think that that's going to be the
thing.

She feels angry because she knows she's
good.

There is something about knowing that
you're good and the world around you not

understanding yet.

That is going to drive her.

And I think it's critical that they are
outsiders.

They're outsiders to the publishing and
cultural elite and the power that's held

by London.

Although stung by the rejection, Jane
has the unfailing support of her sister,

Cassandra.

Deemed the pretty sister, Cassandra had
been engaged to marry a young chaplain.

But in early 1797, more bad news
arrives.

Cassandra knows that very well when she
sees the black seal on the letter,

on the notice of death.

She knows what that represents.

Cassandra's fiancé has died on a voyage
to the West Indies, his body buried at

sea.

Jane Austen is heartbroken for her
sister. She sees the pain her sister is

going through.

And Jane says, I've never seen anybody
behave with such grace

and such fortitude and such courage in
the light of this absolutely

heartbreaking news.

Cassandra resolves from this point on
she's not going to find another love and

that's it for her.

Cassandra's vow to remain unmarried will
have a profound impact on the lives of

both women.

I think there is a part of her that also
feels a sense of relief.

She's not going to be parted from me. We
can be together. We can stay together.

It's an absolutely pivotal moment in the
life of Jane Austen. It

opens the doorway for Jane Austen to
think about a life in which she may not

get married.

It's almost as if they're in it together
now.

So she must now be thinking, writing.

How can I be secure and independent
through my writing?

That's her project.

And every project needs a great idea.

From her own extensive reading, Jane
knows what makes a bestseller.

The real fashion for Gothic novels at
the time. The racy Gothic novels with

the shivering, shuddering, swooning
heroines.

Gothic fiction features beautiful
heroines.

often trapped in mysterious settings and
facing terrifying dangers.

For some, these racy page-turners are a
cause for concern.

There's lots of quite stiff writers in
the 18th century, male writers usually,

who are very worried about the influence
that these terrible, trashy things are

going to have on women's imagination.
The idea that a young woman might read

this and...

think that all these things are going to
happen to her.

Austen comes up with a masterstroke.

She takes the idea of the novel as a bad
influence and runs with it.

In Northanger Abbey, Austen creates a
teenage heroine, Catherine Morland, who

is obsessed with reading gothic horror.

Both Jane and the character of Catherine
Morland's father were rectors, and you

could really see that Jane is putting a
lot of herself into this character.

She's plain. She comes from a large,
undistinguished family. Her father's not

rich.

Her mother's sensible, but not
particularly anything else.

And yet, she's the one we're going to
follow, and proudly.

Jane is holding a standard for her and
says, come with me, this person's worth

watching. Austen is subverting the idea
of what a heroine is, or should be. For

when a young lady is to be a hero...
Wept up in her gothic novel obsession,

Catherine is prone to dramatic
daydreams. The tumult of emotions

stirred in the bosom of Adeline and fear
gripped her heart, that at any moment

ruffians would fly upon the carriage and
return her to the ignominy of her

captive state.

Back in the real world, Catherine is
invited to the family home of her

suitor, Henry Tilney.

Arriving at Northanger Abbey, a looming
Gothic pile, Catherine's imagination

runs riot.

Catherine is always looking for the
Gothic horror. She's looking in the

cupboards, in the drawers.

You know, she wants...

all the horror of the typical Abbey.

The night was dark and the rain still
beat violently against the windows.

Catherine's heart beat quick, but her
courage did not fail her.

With a cheek flushed by hope and an eye
straining with curiosity, her fingers

grasped the handle of a drawer and threw
it forth.

It was entirely empty.

Stylistically, this is the high Gothic
style.

I think what...

What makes me laugh about this is the
sort of main character energy that

Catherine stars in the film of her own
life.

You know, everything she does.

To marry Henry Tilney, Catherine must
win the approval of his sinister father,

General Tilney.

Miss Morland, welcome to Northanger
Abbey.

When she finds out the general's wife
died, she concludes he murdered her.

Catherine's imagination is running
absolutely wild here. She says to Henry

Tilney, he is a murderer. I cannot help
believing it. There's always this

monstrous, barren figure in these
romances.

And she thinks that General Tilney has
murdered his wife.

And there'll be corpses hanging up in
his bedroom. But actually what he does

is much more monstrous.

My father insists on your leaving
immediately.

As soon as you can make yourself ready.

The carriage will take you to meet the
public stagecoach.

No servant will accompany you.

I'm to travel all night.

Alone.

General Tilney had believed Catherine
was rich.

When he learns she's a penniless
clergyman's daughter, he ruthlessly

casts her out of the Abbey.

That's it. She's out.

She has no money, she has no means of
getting home.

She's completely betrayed by what should
have been his duty of care.

So it turns out it is a book full of
monsters, but actually, you know, they

live amongst us.

In Northanger Abbey, Austen uses the
Gothic fantasy to expose an

uncomfortable truth about society.

She's played with a very, very popular
literary movement, and she's looked

behind.

the spooky velvet curtain of chivalry
horrors, and she's shown us a real

monster, which is the kind of man that
would treat women that way.

Austen gives her heroine a fairy tale
ending.

Catherine and Henry Tilney marry and
live happily ever after.

But her own future is far from settled.

And in the winter of 1800, her world is
turned upside down.

Jane's father is growing old.

He has decided to give up his position
as the village clergyman.

She comes back from staying with a
friend and she walks into her home and

her mother blurts out that they're going
to leave.

She's turfed out of the family home.

And it's such an overpowering shock.

Her father passes a living at Stevenson
to his eldest son, James.

The rectory will now be his home.

She's being uprooted, and Jane cannot
conceal her resentment about this.

She writes, The whole world is a
conspiracy to enrich one part of our

family at the expense of another.

This is about the unfairness of male
inheritance that her elder brother James

gets the house.

It's just this wonderfully succinct,
angry comment.

She feels at this moment that sense of
powerlessness.

Does nobody ever consult my feelings?

Am I important or am I just dispensable?

It's a move by the family that really
doesn't consider her needs at all.

And it screws her up.

Worse, to pay for the move and help fund
her father's retirement, the library is

sold.

I just can't begin to imagine what that
represented for her.

The pain of not being able to have those
books around you, not being able to find

that refuge that she's always had. It's
like it's one body blow after another.

She had to pack up and move on.

Jane and her sister are forced to move
with their parents to Bath.

It is hoped here the two girls will find
husbands.

At this point, she's 25, which seems
very young to us, but at that time,

she's getting to the end of marriageable
age. It's sort of a bit like the Circus

Panic in Bridget Jones.

That's not an easy time for her.

It's potentially humiliating.

A daily occurrence in Bath, going to a
visitation, attending things in public

with a very strong sense of urgency
about finding a marriage match.

Jane writes about the social engagements
she's made to attend.

Another stupid party last night.

Perhaps if larger, they might be less
intolerable. I cannot anyhow continue to

find people agreeable.

She's starting to have difficulty in
crowds in general. This is too much.

She's shy, she's introverted.

Having to make conversation with a few
people in intense ways really tires her

out, and her situation becomes
intolerable.

We associate Jane Austen with bath, but
the fact is she hates it.

In the summer of 1801, Jane manages to
escape to the seaside.

Invited by family friends, she spends
several weeks in Sidmouth.

Sidmouth is a beautiful, genteel,
Georgian beach town.

It's just gorgeous. It was known as the
English Riviera.

So it's a great place to go, and she's
really happy to be there.

And she meets a man.

And she falls in love.

We know he was a clergyman.

It's pretty serious, and he makes his
intentions pretty clear.

What's infuriating for us is we just
don't know anything about him. We don't

know what his name was.

He's very shadowy.

The only source of information about the
romance is from Austen's sister,

Cassandra.

Cassandra tells us later this might have
been the love of her life.

She said he had the charm of person,
mind and manners that made him worthy to

possess her sister's love.

We think that this could lead to a
proposal.

To meet someone she falls for at that
point in her life is...

The pair agree to meet again.

In the meantime, Jane returns to Bath.

Something awful has happened.

The love of her life has died.

It's probably making her think that
she's lost all her chances now.

This could have been the last one.

It's clearly huge for her.

But the sense of pain that she must
feel.

That's the sort of fuel that a writer
needs, and it candles itself into one of

the greatest novels ever written.

So the opening line of Pride and
Prejudice is one of the most famous

opening lines in literature.

It is a truth universally acknowledged
that the single man in possession of a

good fortune must be want of a wife.

That's already funny.

It also is the painful truth behind the
whole novel that if your family doesn't

have any money and you're a woman, you
have to marry a rich man.

When the wealthy and single Mr Bingley
arrives in the neighbourhood, the five

Bennet sisters are thrilled.

Bingley! Bingley, what have I told you
about listening at the door? Never mind

that. Mr Bingley arrived from the north.

Bingley!

Mr Bennett owns an estate, but when he
dies it will pass down the male line.

With no inheritance in sight, the
Bennett girls face poverty unless they

marry well.

When you die, Mr Bennet, which may in
fact be very soon, our girls will be

left without a roof over their head nor
a penny to their name.

It's ten in the morning.

Pride and Prejudice. It's full of an
abundance of females that no-one knows

what to do with.

How on earth do you get shot of them
all?

I mean, it's almost like a send-up of
her own life so far. What do we do with

these women?

The novel's heroine is the proud and
fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet.

Another young woman who loves reading.

I always imagine Elizabeth is the
closest to actual Jane of all of her

heroines. She's funny, she's smart,
she's kind, she's full of spirit, she's

modern, she's independent.

And so you're gunning for her from the
start.

the evening in love with you that I'm no
judge of beauty.

Or men.

No, they are far too easy to judge.
They're not all bad.

Humorous poppycups in my limited
experience.

One of these days, Lizzie, someone will
catch your eye and then you'll have to

watch your tongue.

In this particular scene, we see the
dance from Elizabeth's perspective.

Hears.

Remembers. that you as the reader will
slowly be pulled in, in sort of an

immersive way, into that person's
consciousness.

But that takes extraordinary skill.

Lizzie is determined to marry for love.

Enter the dangerous Mr. Darcy.

Come from your dreams, the sense that
somehow or other...

There's no reason to speak because the
aura that's been given off by this male

figure is so filled with her pungent
sexuality that it doesn't really matter

what he says.

With his sex appeal, fortune and
sprawling ancestral mansions, Darcy

seems to have everything.

But he's far from perfect.

He needs fixing, you know, he's rude,
he's arrogant, and crucially, he's rude

to her.

But her sister Elizabeth is very
agreeable. Fairly tolerable, I dare say.

She's not handsome enough to tempt me.

You'd better return to your partner and
enjoy her smiles. You're wasting your

time with me.

And they both need to learn some things.

So Jane Austen plots the dynamic between
Darcy and Elizabeth really precisely,

and that's the narrative drive of the
book.

The arrogant Mr. Darcy and the proud
Lizzie are in denial over their intense

mutual attraction.

While they smoulder, an obstacle
arrives.

Mr. Collins at your service.

Mr. Collins is the male heir to the
Bennet estate.

He shows up at their home, hoping to
choose a wife from one of the Bennet

daughters.

What a superbly featured room, and
what...

Excellent boiled potatoes.

Many years since I've had such an
exemplary vegetable.

To which of my fair cousins should I
compliment the excellence of the

cooking?

Yeah, Mr Collins is another one of
Austin's idiots.

But he is not lovable.

He is a proud, boastful, odious,
charmless little toad of a man.

After dinner, I thought I might read to
you all for an hour or two.

I have with me four dice's sermons,
which speak very eloquently on all

matters moral.

Are you familiar with four dice's
sermons, Miss Bennet?

And you can see what he's trying to do.
He believes, literally, it is his God

-given right to go round to this house
and pick a daughter.

What a prick.

Later on, of course, Mr Collins will ask
Lizzie to marry him.

And now...

Nothing remains but for me to assure you
in the most animated language of the

violence of my affection. Mr. Collins!

And that no reproach on the subject of
fortune will cross my lips once we're

married. You are too hasty, sir. You
forget that I have given no answer.

Please understand me. I cannot accept
you.

Lizzie is affronted by Mr. Collins'
proposal and abruptly turns him down.

Then Darcy makes his move.

Please do me the honour of accepting my
hand.

He is actually trying to propose to her
at this point, and Darcy says... Could

you expect me to rejoice in the
inferiority of your circumstances?

And those are the words of a gentleman.

It's a bit of a cack-handed proposal.

He is very open about his awareness of
her inferiority, but Lizzie responds

with usual fire and wit and defiance.

From the first moment I met you, your
arrogance and conceit, your selfish

disdain for the feelings of others made
me realise that you were the last man in

the world I could ever be prevailed upon
to marry.

You have money, you have class over me,
but you can still never be the person

that I am.

Lizzie will never, ever be told that
she's not as good as anyone else.

She's amazing.

Jane Austen is doing something
brilliantly subversive here because

she's going against the hierarchical
nature of society, of class, of class

divide.

Jane Austen's project was to make public
the idea that women's imagination

and that women's minds were not just
subtle and graceful, but sharp with

enormous integrity and seriousness.

There were no other images available of
how women thought.

and felt it wasn't as though it was
happening in opera.

You know, it wasn't happening in poetry.

But she managed to create an
extraordinary sense not only of life in

the protagonist, but also of sharp
intelligence, tact, wit, knowledge.

Despite her defiance, Lizzie seemed
truly devastated.

As a writer, you always want your
characters to be like Lizzie and Darcy

in a place where you think, we're not
coming back from this, there is no way.

But we always need a journey to go on.

In the end, Darcy proves himself worthy
of Lizzie's love.

They finally surrender to their
feelings.

I would have to tell you.

You have bewitched me, body and soul,
and I love and love.

I love you.

I'll never wish to be parted from you
from the day on.

It's a really beautiful ending.

We all have to have someone who sees us
and loves us.

He is probably the only person that sees
Lizzie.

Jane has written for us a character and
a story that we need as readers.

She's writing the happy ending that she
needed.

Jane Austen is about to turn 27.

She's still living with her parents.

One suitor's family rejected her. The
man she loved has died.

And nothing she's written has been
published.

Then, in December 1802, Jane and her
sister are invited to stay with some

family friends.

wealthy members of a landed gentry.

During Austin's day, he does receive an
offer of marriage from the

improbably named Mr Big Wither.

It's straight out of one of her novels.

She doesn't love him and he clearly
doesn't love her.

It's hard to have to marry someone you
don't love because that's the only way

you can survive.

And she thinks, I'll be rich.

How tempting is that?

Why shouldn't she have security and
respectability and money?

Jane accepts Big Withers' proposal.

And then that night, she thinks about
it.

And she must have thought, you know,
were they up and down? Could I feel

right? At what cost would it come out?

This is a real fork in the road for her.

She speaks with her sister.

And she decides, I cannot go through
with this.

She just couldn't.

make herself marry someone that she did
not or could not imagine herself loving.

And that is the mantra in the novels.

Her herons say, I will not marry without
love. So she's actually living what

she's preaching.

This is a defining moment, and it
determines the rest of her writing life.

She chooses to take the route of being
an independent woman to pursue

her dream of being a writer.

That is the moment when she says, my
life's going to be different.

And I think there was almost a real
pledge, an internal pledge to the life

that I am choosing.

for myself

jane

has gone she's gambled everything all
right all of her chips are down

this is just a whole new chapter in her
life

She's thinking, this is just all going
so well for me.

Then suddenly everything goes wrong.

This is an absolute gut punch.

What was I thinking?

Thinking I could be a writer.

Take an interactive journey through
spaces that shaped Jane Austen's life

and work.

and explore how her influence extends
across time, place and cultures.

Scan the QR code or visit bbc.co.uk
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