Lefroygate Report: The Long Janeite Nightmare Continues
Things have slowed down a bit (thankfully) but there still are plenty of references around the press to Lefroy!Darcy. (We’ve already blogged about it here and here and have not the fortitude to recap.) However, it looks like a voice of reason has emerged from the journalistic primordial soup: The Guardian’s Mark Brown.
Look at the facts. Lefroy was a penniless law student who needed to marry money in order to get on in life; Darcy was a wealthy landowner who owned Pemberley, a large estate in Derbyshire. Lefroy was a young man with ridiculously boyish looks who was all over Austen like a hyperactive puppy. All he wanted to do was dance and chatter about books. Darcy was smouldering, aloof and masculine - he looked down his superior nose at Elizabeth Bennet. Lefroy very quickly did what he was told by his family and went off to marry a rich woman, probably hurting Austen very much. For Darcy and Bennet things were much brighter.
Wouldn’t it make more sense if the headlines read: Found: The real Mr Willoughby? He was the one who visited Marianne Dashwood day after day in Sense and Sensibility, leading her on until quickly gallivanting off to London where he found a wealthy bride.
Yes, though it would be no more real than Lefroy!Darcy. But as he said, it makes more sense.
