CHARACTERS

The Bennet family lives at Longbourne in Hertfordshire. The family consists of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their five daughters: Jane, Elisabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia.

Mr. Bennet:
"was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character."

Mrs. Bennet:
"She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news."

Jane (22):
"is said to be the most beautiful with the sweetes temper."
"You (Jane) never see a fault in alyody. All the world are good and agreeable in you eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in my life."

Elisabeth (20):
"she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in any thing ridiculous."
"They are all silly and ignorant, like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters."
"But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, then he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes."
"Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to ackowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness."

Mary:
"is the only plain one in the family."

Kitty (17/18):
"is influensed by her younger sister Lydia.

Lydia (15/16):
"in danger of becoming a flirt in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation... -- Vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled!"
"for thou I am the youngest, I'm the tallest."

Mr. Bingley:
"was good looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners." "had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room; he was lively and unreserved, danced every dance, was angry that the ball closed so early"
"He is just wht a young man ought to be, sensible, good-humoured, lively, and I never saw such happy manners! - so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!
"He is also handsome"

Mrs. Hurst and Miss. Bingley:
"Their behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgment, too, unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them. They were in fact very fine ladies, not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of being agreeable where they chose it; but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank; and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother's fortune and their own had been acquired by trade."

Mr. Hurst:
"was an indolent man, who lived only to eat, drink, and play at cards, who, when he found her prefer a plain dish to a ragout, had nothing to say to her (Elisabeth)."

Mr. Darcy:
"soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien; and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend."
"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess, said Darcy, of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done."

Georgiana Darcy:
"was tall, and on a larger scale than Elizabeth; and, though little more than sixteen, her figure was formed, and her appearance womanly and graceful. She was less handsome than her brother, but there was sense and good humour in her face, and her manners were perfectly unassuming and gentle. Elizabeth, who had expected to find in her as acute and unembarrassed an observer as ever Mr. Darcy had been, was much relieved by discerning such different feelings." "Since her being at Lambton, she had heard that Miss Darcy was exceedingly proud; but the observation of a very few minutes convinced her that she was only exceedingly shy. She found it difficult to obtain even a word from her beyond a monosyllable."

Lady Catherine De Bourgh:
"was a tall, large woman, with strongly-marked features, which might once have been handsome. Her air was not conciliating, nor was her manner of receiving them such as to make her visitors forget their inferior rank. She was not rendered formidable by silence; but whatever she said was spoken in so authoritative a tone as marked her self-importance" "She gives minute advice on how other people should run their lives"

Miss Anne De Bourgh:
"she could almost have joined in Maria's astonishment at her being so thin, and so small. There was neither in figure nor face any likeness between the ladies. Miss De Bourgh was pale and sickly; her features, though not plain, were insignificant; and she spoke very little, except in a low voice to Mrs. Jenkinson, in whose appearance there was nothing remarkable, and who was entirely engaged in listening to what she said, and placing a screen in the proper direction before her eyes."

Colonel Fitzwilliam:
"Colonel Fitzwilliam, who led the way, was about thirty, not handsome, but in person and address most truly the gentleman." "entered into conversation directly with the readiness and ease of a well-bred man, and talked very pleasantly"

Mr. Collins:
"He was a tall, heavy looking young man of five and twenty. His air was grave and stately, and his manners were very formal" "was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society; the greatest part of his life having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and miserly father; and though he belonged to one of the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms, without forming at it any useful acquaintance. The subjection in which his father had brought him up had given him originally great humility of manner, but it was now a good deal counteracted by the self-conceit of a weak head, living in retirement, and the consequential feelings of early and unexpected prosperity. A fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine de Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect which he felt for her high rank and his veneration for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of his authority as a clergyman, and his rights as a rector, made him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility."

Mr. Gardiner:
"was a sensible, gentlemanlike man, greatly superior to his sister, as well by nature as education. whose manners were easy and pleasant."

Mrs. Gardiner:
"was an amiable, intelligent, elegant woman, and a great favourite with all her Longbourn nieces."

Sir William Lucas:
"his knighthood "had given him a disgust to his business and to his residence in a small market town; and quitting them both, he had removed with his family to a house about a mile from Meryton, ... where he could think with pleasure of his own importance, and, unshackled by business, occupy himself solely in being civil to all the world". What this means is that Sir William Lucas is an irresponsible parent -- he has taken on the airs of gentility without the ability to give his children (except possibly the eldest son) the necessary wealth to support this status."

Charlotte Lucas:
"a sensible, intelligent young woman, about twenty-seven."

Maria Lucas:
"a good humoured girl, but as empty-headed as himself(Sir William Lucas)."

Mr. Wickham:
"His appearance was greatly in his favour; he had all the best part of beauty -- a fine countenance, a good figure, and very pleasing address."
"The vicious propensities -- the want of principle, which he was careful to guard from the knowledge of his best friend, could not escape the observation of a young man of nearly the same age with himself, and who had opportunities of seeing him in unguarded moments, which Mr. Darcy could not have."

Description of charcters from Sense & Sensibility

Description of charcters from Emma

Description of characters from Persuasion

Quotes from Austen novels

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