Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 42: Derbyshire, Not the Lakes

Before the summer journey begins, Austen pauses for the novel's most unsparing page. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 42 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which opens with the truth about the Bennet marriage and closes at the gates of the estate that will change everything.

Captivated in youth by beauty and the appearance of good humour, Mr. Bennet married a woman whose weak understanding ended all real affection early, and he has taken his consolations in the country, his books, and the amusement of his wife's ignorance ever since. Elizabeth has never been blind to it, but she has never felt the cost so strongly: talents misapplied, a wife held up to the contempt of her own children.

• With Lydia gone to Brighton and the militia gone from Meryton, peace descends on Longbourn, along with Kitty's slow recovery of her senses.
• Business trims the Gardiners' great tour: the Lakes are given up for Derbyshire, one county, no rocks and mountains, and Elizabeth swallows her disappointment.
• Derbyshire has associations of its own: they make their headquarters at Lambton, Mrs. Gardiner's old home, and Pemberley stands within five miles of it.
• Assured by a chambermaid that the family is away for the summer, Elizabeth runs out of objections to seeing the famous house, and the chapter ends on her consent: to Pemberley, therefore, they were to go.