Pride and Prejudice Pemberley Quotes

You will have a charming mother-in-law - Pride and Prejudice

You will have a charming mother-in-law, and of course she will always be at Pemberley with you.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 6. Jealous because Mr. Darcy has expressed admiration for Elizabeth Bennet’s "fine eyes," Caroline Bingley tries to come up with something insulting to say about Elizabeth and her family. She sarcastically suggests that Darcy can look forward to sharing lots of time at his grand Pemberley estate with his new mother-in-law – the tiresome and foolish Mrs. Bennet. Family is an important theme in the novel, and while Elizabeth is a lively and intelligent woman, not all members of her family are as attractive as her.

"I am astonished," said Miss Bingley, "that my father should have left so small a collection of books. – What a delightful library you have at Pemberley, Mr. Darcy!"

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 8. While Elizabeth is visiting the Bingleys to see her ill sister Jane, there is a discussion on reading, in which Caroline Bingley compliments Mr. Darcy on his excellent library at Pemberley. A love of books is something which Darcy and Elizabeth share, and one of the things that draws them closer over time. Of course Caroline has little interest in reading, but pretends she does in order to gain the attention of Darcy.

It has often led him to be liberal and generous, to give his money freely, to display hospitality, to assist his tenants, and relieve the poor. Family pride, and filial pride – for he is very proud of what his father was – have done this. Not to appear to disgrace his family, to degenerate from the popular qualities, or lose the influence of the Pemberley House, is a powerful motive. He has also brotherly pride, which, with some brotherly affection, makes him a very kind and careful guardian of his sister, and you will hear him generally cried up as the most attentive and best of brothers.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 16. George Wickham does have some good things to say to Elizabeth about Mr. Darcy, particularly regarding his family pride. He is proud of his father, kind and caring to his sister Georgiana and would not do anything to disgrace his family or injure the reputation of Pemberley House. What a shame that Wickham doesn’t have similar good qualities.

Elizabeth was distressed. She felt that she had no business at Pemberley, and was obliged to assume a disinclination for seeing it. She must own that she was tired of great houses; after going over so many, she really had no pleasure in fine carpets or satin curtains…The possibility of meeting Mr. Darcy, while viewing the place, instantly occurred. It would be dreadful!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 42. When Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner invite Elizabeth to visit Darcy’s estate of Pemberley, she is very hesitant and seeks reassurance that he will not be there. She finds the thought of running into Darcy at Pemberley too much to contemplate and only agrees to go after she learns that none of the family will be there.

Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in a high flutter. The park was very large, and contained great variety of ground. They entered it in one of its lowest points, and drove for some time through a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. The chapter’s opening lines describes Elizabeth’s arrival at Pemberley with her aunt and uncle. Her visit turns out to be a key event, for she not only meets Darcy but he reveals his true and real self to her. The description of her spirits being in a "high flutter" suggests that Elizabeth is in love with, not just Pemberley, but its owner Darcy.

They gradually ascended for half a mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome, stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills; – and in front, a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal, nor falsely adorned. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place where nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. They were all of them warm in their admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Elizabeth gets her first view of the estate that will eventually become her home when she visit Pemberley with Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. She and her aunt and uncle are impressed by the beauty and elegance of Pemberley House and its grounds. For a moment Elizabeth even imagines herself being mistress of Mr. Darcy’s home. Her appreciation of Pemberley during her tour of it – "a large, handsome, stone building" – foreshadows her eventual realization of her love for Darcy and that she will become mistress of Pemberley. It is believed that Jane Austen may have based her idea of Darcy’s fictional country estate of Pemberley on Chatsworth House. Chatsworth is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and can trace its history back to 1549, when the Cavandish family acquired the estate. The beautiful 105-acre Chatsworth gardens are world famous and attract more than one million visitors a year. The stately home features extensively in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film as Mr. Darcy’s residence.

Elizabeth, after slightly surveying it, went to a window to enjoy its prospect. The hill, crowned with wood, from which they had descended, receiving increased abruptness from the distance, was a beautiful object. Every disposition of the ground was good; and she looked on the whole scene, the river, the trees scattered on its banks, and the winding of the valley, as far as she could trace it, with delight.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. During Elizabeth’s first visit to Pemberley she is impressed by the beauty of the grounds, as she views them through a window of Darcy’s country estate home.

The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Elizabeth praises the tastefully furnished and elegant rooms in Darcy’s Pemberley. She compares them to those in in Lady Catherine’s home of Rosings, which were more splendid but less elegant. Her verdict: Darcy has more taste than his aristocratic aunt. But is it Darcy’s rooms she loves – or Darcy?

"And of this place," thought she, "I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own, and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt. But no," – recollecting herself – "that could never be; my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. As Elizabeth wanders around Pemberley room by room, she is struck by the realization that she could have been mistress of the estate. It is only on seeing Darcy’s country home, that she can imagine herself being Mrs. Darcy. But amid her day-dreaming, the reality hits that if she married Darcy she could not invite Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner over because of Darcy’s class prejudice.

On reaching the spacious lobby above they were shown into a very pretty sitting-room, lately fitted up with greater elegance and lightness than the apartments below; and were informed that it was but just done to give pleasure to Miss Darcy, who had taken a liking to the room when last at Pemberley.
"He is certainly a good brother," said Elizabeth, as she walked towards one of the windows.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Family is important to Darcy and he is a good and caring brother, Elizabeth discovers when she is taken into an attractive sitting room. His sister Georgiana took a liking to the room when she last visited Pemberley, so Darcy had it more elegantly fitted out for her pleasure.

On reaching the house, they were shown through the hall into the saloon, whose northern aspect rendered it delightful for summer. Its windows opening to the ground, admitted a most refreshing view of the high woody hills behind the house, and of the beautiful oaks and Spanish chestnuts which were scattered over the intermediate lawn.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 45. When Elizabeth and the Gardiners go to Pemberley at the invitation of Darcy and his sister Georgiana they are brought into the saloon, a room with the most beautiful view of the hills and the trees.

"Will you tell me how long you have loved him?"
"It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59. Jane is delighted for her sister Elizabeth over her engagement to Darcy and is dying to know how long she has loved him. Elizabeth admits that it wasn’t love at first sight, but her feelings changed and grew into love over time. But she recalls her visit to Pemberley as the turning point – while she was there she greatly admired the estate and fantasized about being mistress of it.

I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Mr. Darcy sends you all the love in the world that he can spare from me. You are all to come to Pemberley at Christmas.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 60. Announcing her engagement to Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth writes a letter to the Gardiners expressing her great joy with her typical Lizzy wit. Now that she is mistress of Pemberley, she invites them there for Christmas.

By Elizabeth’s persuasion, he was prevailed on to overlook the offence, and seek a reconciliation; and, after a little farther resistance on the part of his aunt, her resentment gave way, either to her affection for him, or her curiosity to see how his wife conducted herself: and she condescended to wait on them at Pemberley, in spite of that pollution which its woods had received, not merely from the presence of such a mistress, but the visits of her uncle and aunt from the city.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 61. After the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth, Lady Catherine is so angry that she sends her nephew Darcy a letter full of abuse, especially towards Elizabeth. But in the above passage we learn that Elizabeth plays the role of peacemaker and persuades Darcy to seek a reconciliation with his aunt. Lady Catherine "condescends" to visit them at Pemberley in spite of the "pollution" that the great lady had forecast would descend on the place if the lowly Elizabeth married into her family. In her final word on Lady Catherine, Austen mercilessly satirizes upper class snobbery in her deliciously sarcastic and ironic style – as only she can do.
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