The Gentleman & The Rake

A Man of Few Words: Foreword

I have requested that Miss Katherine Woodbury record the following in hopes of clarifying certain aspects of the courtship between Mrs. Darcy, née Bennet, and myself found in the account penned by Miss Jane Austen, widely circulated under the title, Pride and Prejudice. 

Let me hasten to observe that I find no fault with any part of Miss Austen's account. It records, with commendable accuracy, my behavior towards and conversations with my future bride. However, through no fault of Miss Austen's, there have arisen many fanciful inventions in connection with her work. These inventions are, I must stress, wholly without foundation. 

I speak specifically to descriptions of my person and character that persist in providing me with the gregariousness of Tom Jones, the masterfulness of one "Mr. B" in Pamela, and even, I am sorry to say, the licentiousness of a Restoration rake. I am portrayed as a type of contemporary knight-errant: emotional, hotheaded, and distressingly unorganized. 

To be sure, my wife and sister find such depictions amusing in the extreme, and Charles Bingley has taken to regaling dinner guests with each and every new derivation that chances across his eyes or ears. 

However desirable such a picture of the English gentleman might appear to many, it is precisely my honor as a English gentleman that compels me to attempt to convince the reading public that, in my case, these portraits have no basis in the truth. 

It is thus my earnest hope that the following should put to rest the presumptions contained in any and all such conflicting narratives. Miss Woodbury assures me that she has taken my full character into account. If I detect, occasionally, a hint of amusement in her writing, I lay such amusement at my wife's feet. 

One must, in marriage, make some concessions to the impressions of one's spouse. 

 Fitzwilliam Darcy 

Pemberley 

Lambton, Derbyshire 

28 January 1814