pplpod

Elizabeth is alone with a letter to Jane when the doorbell rings, and the wrong cousin walks in. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 32 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, a small, strange chapter of half-started conversations in which Mr. Darcy keeps arriving where Elizabeth is and failing to explain why. Caught without the buffer of company, Darcy makes civil inquiries and then s...

An evening at Rosings, a pianoforte, and an audience of two. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 31 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which Elizabeth entertains Colonel Fitzwilliam, teases Mr. Darcy in front of his relations, and receives the closest thing to a confession he has yet managed. Invited back to Rosings on Easter evening, the parsonage party finds Lady Catherine mo...

Life at Hunsford settles into its small routine, and then the great house gets visitors. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 30 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which Sir William goes home satisfied, Lady Catherine manages everyone within reach, and Mr. Darcy arrives at Rosings for Easter. The rhythm of parsonage life is walks, work, and the regular dissection of Rosings hosp...

"Do not make yourself uneasy about your apparel, my dear cousin. Lady Catherine will not think the worse of you for being simply dressed." This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 29 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth's first evening at Rosings, and her first full exposure to the most self-assured woman in England. Mr. Collins prepares the party for splendour as though for a...

Every gate, every paling, every shelf in the closet: Mr. Collins has been waiting for this. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 28 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which Elizabeth arrives at the parsonage to see with her own eyes exactly what her friend Charlotte purchased with her marriage. Mr. Collins receives the travellers with triumphant formality and shows off the house...

March comes, and with it the visit Elizabeth never wanted to make. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 27 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, a travelling chapter in which the road to Kent runs through London and ends with the best invitation of Elizabeth's year. She sets out with Sir William Lucas and his daughter Maria, breaking the journey at Gracechurch Street for a night of th...

Somebody finally says the quiet part about Mr. Wickham. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 26 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which Elizabeth receives the most sensible advice in the novel, a wedding goes forward without joy, and London teaches Jane the truth about her friends. Mrs. Gardiner takes the first private moment to warn her niece: Wickham is agreeable and penniles...

Relief arrives from Gracechurch Street. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 25 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which Mr. Collins finally goes home to Kent and the two most sensible adults in the novel arrive at Longbourn for Christmas. Mr. Gardiner, Mrs. Bennet's brother, is a man greatly superior to his sister by nature and education, and his wife is an intelligent, elegant...

Miss Bingley's second letter arrives, and it ends the question. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 24 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which the Netherfield party settles in London for the winter and the two eldest Bennet sisters take the blow in two very different ways. Caroline writes with warm insincerity: her brother is fixed in town, and the family grows fonder of Georg...

Sir William Lucas arrives at Longbourn in his most stately manner, bearing news he expects to delight everybody. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 23 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which the Bennets learn who is really going to marry Mr. Collins, and Mrs. Bennet takes it precisely as well as you would expect. Disbelief comes first: Lydia declares Sir William is telling st...

While the Bennets worry about Netherfield, Charlotte Lucas has been quietly working. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 22 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which Mr. Collins proposes for the second time in three days and this time gets the answer he expected the first time. Charlotte's scheme costs her nothing but a morning: she watches for Mr. Collins from an upper window,...

The Collins problem seems to be solving itself, which should have been the warning. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 21 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which a rejected suitor finds a much more patient listener and a letter from Netherfield knocks the wind out of Jane. Mr. Collins spends the day in stiff silence toward Elizabeth and transfers his attentions to Charlotte L...

Mr. Collins has proposed, Elizabeth has refused, and Mrs. Bennet knows exactly where to appeal. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 20 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which the fate of the match is referred to the library, and Mr. Bennet delivers the finest single verdict of his career. Mrs. Bennet demands her husband make Lizzy marry Mr. Collins, promising never to see her...

The morning after the ball, Mr. Collins requests the honour of a private audience with Miss Elizabeth. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 19 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: one of the great comic proposals in literature, delivered by a man incapable of imagining the word no. Mrs. Bennet clears the room over Elizabeth's protests, and Mr. Collins begins with his reasons for marr...

Elizabeth dresses with more than usual care and arrives looking for a man who is not there. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 18 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the Netherfield ball, the longest and busiest chapter in the novel, where nearly every Bennet contrives to be memorable in the worst possible way. Wickham has kept clear of his old acquaintance, leaving Elizabeth to o...

Elizabeth has a story to tell, and only one person she trusts to hear it. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 17 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which Jane tries to acquit two men at once and an invitation arrives that sets every heart at Longbourn racing for different reasons. Told of Wickham's history, Jane does what Jane does: she looks for a reading in which nobody is wi...

Give a charming man a sympathetic listener and a grievance, and he will make an evening of it. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 16 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: the supper party at Mrs. Philips's where George Wickham lays out his whole history with Mr. Darcy, and Elizabeth believes every syllable. While Mr. Collins compares the drawing-room to the small summer breakfast pa...

Mr. Collins came to Longbourn to choose a wife, and he is nothing if not efficient about it. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 15 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which the heir to Longbourn fixes on his object and a far more charming stranger walks into Meryton. A walk to town brings the younger girls exactly what they went for: officers. A new face is among them, a gentle...

Asked for a subject, Mr. Collins only ever needs one. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 14 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, an after-dinner evening in which the rector of Hunsford unpacks the full glory of his patroness for a host who cannot get enough of him. Mr. Bennet plays his cousin like an instrument, inviting ever more detail about Lady Catherine de Bourgh: her affabili...

"I hope, my dear, that you have ordered a good dinner to-day, because I have reason to expect an addition to our family party." This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 13 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which the cousin who will one day turn the Bennets out of Longbourn invites himself to stay for a week. Mr. Collins's letter precedes him: a masterpiece of pompous apology in whi...

Five days of Netherfield hospitality is enough for everyone, for entirely opposite reasons. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 12 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which the Bennet sisters try to go home and their mother does everything in her power to stop them. Jane writes to ask for the carriage; Mrs. Bennet, who had counted on a full week at least, replies that the horses...

Jane is at last well enough to come downstairs, which suits everyone but the ladies who invited her. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 11 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which Elizabeth goes hunting for something in Mr. Darcy to laugh at, and he hands her the one flaw he admits he cannot cure. Bingley devotes himself to Jane by the fire while his sister tries every lure on...

Another evening at Netherfield, and the drawing-room becomes a fencing hall. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 10 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which Mr. Darcy tries to write one letter to his sister and finds the room will not let him. Caroline Bingley supplies a running commentary on the letter: his even handwriting, his charmingly long sentences, her raptures for dear...

Jane is mending, which will never do. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 9 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which Mrs. Bennet arrives at Netherfield to confirm, with satisfaction, that her daughter is far too ill to be moved anywhere near home. What follows is Elizabeth's private nightmare: her mother in full flow before the very audience she most needs to impress. Mrs. Benn...

With Jane upstairs ill, Elizabeth is now a houseguest in the enemy camp. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 8 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: an evening in the Netherfield drawing-room where the conversation is elegant and the knives are out. The moment Elizabeth leaves the room, the Bingley sisters marvel at her wild appearance, her blowsy hair, and a petticoat six inches dee...