And at other times, she pinned her hopes on the notion that a sudden apoplexy would carry him off.
Like all writers Jane Austen reserves subtlety and nuance, not to mention backstory, for her major characters, reducing her minor characters oftentimes to caricatures, albeit ones so deftly drawn that they frequently steal scenes right out from under everyone else on the page. No one makes me wince more than Mrs. Bennet or cringe more…
