Pride and Prejudice II

THis novel is set during the Napoleonic wars and a regiment of soldiers is quartered in Meryton. The local young ladies are delighted to have handsome officers at their parties, particularly Elizabeth's two youngest sisters, Kitty and Lydia, who make a show of themselves chasing the officers. Elizabeth meets Mr Wickham, who turns out to be a boyhood friend of Darcy's. His father was the business manager on Darcy's father's estate. He tells Elizabeth that when he was a few years younger Darcy refused to let him have a living as a clergyman on the estate, which Darcy's father had promised him. Elizabeth dislikes Darcy even more, and enjoys a romantic flirtation with Wickham, who seems so handsome and charming. To her horror, however, her best friend Charlotte Lucas accepts a proposal from Mr Collins, who is determined to find a wife. He and Charlotte get engaged but Elizabeth feels she can never respect her friend again, for making a mercenary marriage with a man she does not care for or respect. The Bingley party then abruptly leave Netherfield and it seems that they are not that likely to come back. ELizabeth worries about Jane who is saddened by the sudden desertion of her young man, and she and her aunt, Mrs Gardiner who is a kind sensible woman, get Jane to go to London to stay with her uncles family, to give her a chance to get over Bingley. In the meantime Elizabeth accepts an invitation from Charlotte to go and stay with her for a few weeks, though she feels she will never like Charlotte as much again. She can see the temptation that Charlotte faced, to make a sensible marriage to a man with financial prospects but she still feels it is wrong to marry without liking or respect. She goes to Kent, and stays with her cousin and Charlotte, and thinks that her friend manages her husband very well, but she does not like Lady Catherine De Bourgh, who is Dary's aunt and owns the living where Mr Collins works. To her surprise, Darcy arrives to visit his aunt, with a cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, who flirts a bit with Elizabeth. She likes Fitzwilliam but he makes it clear that he as a younger son, cannot marry someone like her who does not have a large dowry. Then he tells her that Darcy, whom he likes, recently told him that he managed to separate Bingley from a young lady whose family were not quite genteel, and does not realise that he's talking to the sister of the lady involved.