Ack! I’ve got Monday brain! I hate when this happens. Earlier today I knew what I was going to write about this evening and now that I am sitting at my computer ready to write I can’t for the life of me think what I was going to write about. And nothing else is coming swooshing in to fill in. So let’s just talk for a moment about Sense and Sensibility.
Willoughby and Colonel Brandon had a duel!
I don’t remember this from the first time I read the book mumble mumble years ago. The freshest version of the book in my brain is multiple viewings of the Emma Thompson movie version. There is no duel in the movie.
Technically there wasn’t a duel in the book either. I mean there was, but we don’t find out about it until afterwards and neither Willoughby nor the Colonel were wounded in it. The duel was not over Marianne but over another young lady the Colonel was sort of a guardian of. Willoughby seduced her with the idea of marriage. They ran off together. Willoughby had his fun and left her unmarried, pregnant and penniless. So of course Colonel Brandon had to call him out.
I was surprised about there being a duel in Jane Austen. It seems so un-Austen-y. I mean, weapons were drawn, weapons other than sharp tongues and biting wit. I thought dueling was a thing of the past by Austen’s time but a quick tour around the interwebs reveals that dueling went on in England into the 1850s. Who knew? Still, it is a bit shocking to my – er – sensibilities.
I think I had best go take some lavender water and lie down for a bit until I recover.
You may also remember that Mrs. Bennet wanted Mr. Bennet to duel Wickham. That would have been an interesting duel!
Andrew, you know, I had forgotten all about that! Probably because I always just thought it was Mrs. Bennet being her silly self. Wickham and Mr. Bennet would have been and interesting duel for sure.
The last duel in Britain took place in 1826, near where I live, after an argument in Kirkcaldy High Street. You can see a documentary about it online and a few books have been written about it.
Katrina, 1826? Thanks for the firming up of the date!
It was entirely lovely of Colonel Brandon to duel Willoughby too. I don’t remember it not being in the movie but then again, I was almost but not quite done with the book when I saw it. I do know it’s one of the few movies I wasn’t grinding my teeth at how horribly the movie treated the book.
Carrie, I’m pretty sure there was no Brandon/Willoughby duel in the movie. If it was mentioned it has never registered in my brain! I actually didn’t like S&S much the first time I read it and the Emma Thompson movie rehabilitated the book for me.
I don’t remember the duel either but it’s been a while since I’ve read the book. Willoughby was really nasty business, wasn’t he….when all was said and done. Now that I think about it I don’t think I’ve read a single book written prior to about 1900 this year! Maybe I should consider reading one of the last two unread Austen novels on my own pile.
Missed this post when you wrote it as I was in Japan and couldn’t catch up with them all when I got back. Fun post Stefanie. I do hope the lavender water soothed the beating heart. It’s easy to miss in the book but I guess is just intended to shore up Brandon’s worthy character vs Willoughby’s eh.
heh, oh yes, that lavender water works miracles!