From October to October

The swollen pink hills oozed spitefully. I fanned the baggy white t-shirt away from my sticky skin and felt the moving air brush my belly. And it was in this miserable state that I met her.

I don’t remember exactly how old I was, probably about fourteen or fifteen. It was midsummer, and Mom lay stretched out beside me. Bumps peppered our arms and legs from the poison oak we’d encountered on our camping trip. But sweating there in bed on a bright Saturday afternoon, I watched as dark hair, a radiant smile and “fine eyes” lit up the screen. For the six hours that comprises the BBC version, or what Mom and I like to call “the real Pride and Prejudice,” I galloped over the cool, rolling green hills and danced in the crystal ballrooms of regency England.

            She was all wit, beauty and authentic charm. By the end of the film, I felt as head over heals as Mr. Darcy himself. Miss Elizabeth Bennet waltzed in and forever altered my existence.

            Several years later, I entered my final year of college. Naturally, I planned to write my senior thesis on Pride and Prejudice. Consistent with my obsession of starting assignments way too early, I recently began mining for research and literary criticism to apply to the project which won’t be due till next spring.

Reading through a Norton critical edition, I found one scholar who described the time frame of the novel. He wrote, “What we are given of Elizabeth Bennet’s life is about a year, from about October to October, the year in which she becomes twenty-one” (Stuart Tave, “Limitations and Definitions”). Flabbergasted, I scribbled on a sticky note, “I’m going to be Elizabeth Bennet this year.” I was about to turn twenty only a few weeks later. In an extraordinary case of fantastic timing, I realized that the year in which I would dive into Elizabeth’s world set up a parallel with my real life.Then a new idea surfaced. What if while I'm working this research paper, I write a blog about Pride and Prejudice for fun?

            So in this, the October of my twentieth year, I embark on a journey with Elizabeth Bennet. As I navigate the senior year of my undergrad program and glimpse the possibility of life after school, I’ll read and write my way through Lizzy’s dance through 19^th century Britain. The plan is to post something of the experience every week, and we’ll see where it all wraps up at the end of next October. Here it goes!