In the extremely rigid class system of eighteenth-century England, the Lucas family became upwardly mobile with mixed results: “I came to see my father’s knighthood as less boon than burden; though it elevated the circles in which we moved—thereby elevating my own and my siblings’ chances at rising still farther—these chances often felt insubstantial . . . paired as they were with a lack of money.” Would the Lucases have been better off staying in the merchant class, living more prosperously thanks to their father’s successful shop? If he had not been knighted, what would that have meant for Charlotte’s marriage prospects in Meryton?
When Charlotte admits she cannot think of any men besides Mr. Bennet who read novels for pleasure, Mr. Travis replies, “But certainly there are many men who do read novels. Indeed, a great many novels are written by men; it seems reasonable to assume that other men read them.” What did you make of this? What do you think Charlotte’s creator, Jane Austen, would have said about that?
“It is hard to think well of men when they so obviously do not think well of you,” Charlotte reflects, when she first met Mr. Collins. Do any of the men in this novel seem to think well of women? Does her husband ultimately come to think well of her? What qualities of hers does he value? Which does Mr. Travis value?
When Maria, the younger and prettier of the Lucas daughters, chose to marry for love rather than upward mobility, Lady Lucas tells Charlotte that Maria “will never live up to our hopes for her now, and that’s a fact.” Did Maria make the right decision? Why does Maria defy her family’s aspirations and happily choose to stay in the merchant class? How will her marriage be different from her parents’ or her sister’s?
The heartbreaking story of Charlotte’s first child, Lucas, was all too common for women in the eighteenth century. How does that experience haunt her? How does Charlotte’s experience of motherhood compare with the grim story of the widowed Mrs. Fitzgibbon and her six lost children; or Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who obsessively hovers over her only living child?
Charlotte tells Mr. Travis, “Not everyone has the luxury of waiting until love comes along.” Do you think their friendship made her reevaluate her choices? Would she truly have married a farmer rather than make “a very eligible match” with someone of greater means and status? Should Charlotte have waited longer? Would you have?
Will Charlotte, with her plans to economize and carefully steward the estate at Longbourn, be a better manager than the late Mr. Bennet? How do her history and personality make her better suited to the job, even though she is a woman and far less educated than its previous master?
At the end of the novel, Charlotte says of her daughter, Louisa, “I will tell her, someday, about how I was brave; and when she is old enough, I will tell her that she needn’t sell herself as cheaply as I did. That she must recognize her own worth, whatever others say.” Do you think Charlotte regrets her decision to marry Mr. Collins?
What do you think the future holds for Charlotte and her family? What will her life be like at Longbourn? Where do you see the characters in this novel in ten years? In twenty years?
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE CLERGYMAN’S WIFE. Copyright © 2019 by Molly Greeley. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Cover design by Yeon Kim
Cover photographs © Richard Jenkins (woman); © MALGORZATA MAJ / Arcangel (background)
Digital Edition DECEMBER 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-294290-6
Version 10102019
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-294291-3
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