I’ll f lirt my last: Austen’s lament for her ‘Mr Darcy’
a LeTTer by Jane austen lamenting g that she is to ‘flirt her last’ with a lawyer - thought to be the inspiration for Mr r darcy will go on display to the public c for the first time.
austen wrote the note aged 20, as a dalliance with irishman Tom Lefroy was ending in January 1796 – the year she started writing - Pride and Prejudice.
some have speculated Lefroy, who later r was ireland’s lord chief justice, provided d inspiration for the novel’s brooding hero – played by colin Firth in a 1995 Tv series of f the novel – who first repulsed but then n charmed heroine elizabeth Bennet.
The letter to austen’s sister cassandra, , written over two days, will be displayed at austen’s home in the village of chawton,
‘She’s out partying, a bright young thing’
hampshire, with a portrait of the lawyer in an exhibition that opens today.
describing her excitement for a ball, austen wrote: ‘i look forward with great impatience to it... as i rather expect to receive an offer from my friend in the course of the evening. i shall refuse him, however, unless he promises to give away his white coat.’
The next day she wrote: ‘ at length the day is come on which i am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, & when you receive this it will be over – my tears flow as i write, at the melancholy idea.’
The ‘white coat’ is thought to be Lefroy’s morning coat. in an earlier letter she said it was ‘a great deal too light’, and described Lefroy as a ‘very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man’. But she said he was due to ‘leave the country’ after the ball.
But sophie reynolds, curator at Jane austen’s house, does not believe the author was heartbroken in the letter, which is the earliest surviving one written by her.
she described it as ‘very tongue in cheek’, adding: ‘it’s a really fun letter, she’s young, she’s out partying, she’s a bright young thing... she’s probably not really that upset about not seeing him again.’ she added:
‘it’s so difficult to say if Lizzy Bennet is based on austen herself’, but ‘there are elements of her character in the letter’.
Lefroy later married an heiress, had seven children and died aged 93. Two exhibitions, Jane austen in Love and Jane austen in London, will run until March 5, 2023.