yes obviously, and I don't care

look. you know what I'm going to say. my legal first name is Jane, my mum went through a phase, and I have been fielding the same joke since I was about nine (usually men, usually delivered like they've just invented it). so I could easily have gone the other way on this one out of spite.

I did not. I am OBSESSED. still. every single time.

the thing people don't say enough is that it's FUNNY. properly funny, out loud funny, and mean in a very precise way. Mr Collins is one of the great comic creations and every word out of his mouth is a small disaster in progress. Mrs Bennet is written with so much contempt and so much accuracy at the same time that I feel bad laughing (my mum is a Mrs Bennet, knows it, and leans all the way in).

the first proposal is possibly my favourite scene in anything ever written. the sheer nerve of the man. against his better judgement! mate. MATE.

this is the edition with the pastel cover and the slightly wrong font that I bought in an airport in 2019 because I'd left my proper copy at home, and somehow it's the one I've read most since. the spine has gone. Biscuit chewed one corner in his youth. ten out of ten and I will defend it in a pub, at length, completely unprompted.