I Want To Be Henry Tilney...

As many of my readers (all three of you) know, I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen's novels. I've read almost all of them. I've read Pride And Prejudice a million times, and I just gave an annotated edition to a co-worker as a graduation gift. She loved it, natch, because Pride And Prejudice is an amazing book. I don't even have time for people who haven't read it. I may need to re-read it again soon, although I should read Mansfield Park, the only Austen book I've missed. I've only read Northanger Abbey once, but it's there I found my Austen match: Mr. Tilney.

Most readers of Austen strive to either have (girls and gays) or be (everybody else) Mr. Darcy, and with good reason. No, not that he's played by Colin Firth in the brilliant BBC miniseries, but because he's a rich man who comes to the aid of a woman with very fine eyes. He loves Lizzie despite himself, deep down he is a romantic.

I often compare situations in my life to those of Austen's characters, especially those in Pride And Prejudice. I worry that I am being to much like Jane Bennett and being too cautious in hiding my emotions from my Mr. Bingley. Other times I fear I am being a Mr. Collins, completely oblivious to others desire to avoid my conversation. On the flip side, what if I allow myself to become Charlotte Lucas, accepting the hand of a Mr. Collins for the sake of avoiding loneliness? How horrid a life like that would be, attached to man who I have no feelings for. I hope I would never be swayed in my feelings for someone, just because my friend think he is beneath me, like Emma's Harriet Smith. But who knows? I think I have an Emma or two in my life, but I hope I never become that meddlesome.

But the second son of General Tilney, that is a man I would have no trouble either becoming or being with. He's a bit snarky, poking fun at his love interest Catherine Morland while remaining charming. Even with the gloomy secrets lurking in his past, he is jolly and pleasant. When his temperamental father forces young Catherine out of the house in the dead of night, his gentlemanly instincts cause him to break from his family (and the possible fortune he would inherit) and marry Miss Morland. So romantic! So dreamy! If I could inhabit the being of any Austen hero, I would want to be Henry Tilney.