Thx for the props, ADE, Whitehall, and Roy.

One additional thought:

In Pride and Prejudice (the greatest book written in English, IMHO), early in the novel we see the disconnection between perception and reality in the cases of Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham. Everyone thinks Mr. Darcy is a bad man: prideful and prejudiced. He is aloof in his social relations, finding country dances beneath him and preferring to spend time among others of his station.

Mr. Wickham, on the other hand, is everyone’s favorite. Smooth, witty, a great dancer, card player, and bon vivant. His status is further elevated when it becomes known that he was a victim of a grave injustice: he was deprived of his preferred career as a clergyman, and effectively forced into military service. And when it is learned that the perpetrator of this injustice was none other than Mr. Darcy, it all makes sense. Everyone becomes convinced of Mr. Wickham’s virtue and Mr. Darcy’s wickedness, even an observer as astute as Elizabeth.

Eventually, however, we learn the truth: Mr. Darcy is a hero, and Mr. Wickham a pathological liar. But much damage has been done in the mean time, and if not for the extraordinary efforts of Mr. Darcy, all would have been lost.

When the novel ends, two feelings linger in our heart:

1. Happiness, for we are delighted that two (actually, four) such good human beings could end up with each other in spite of the messy nature of the human condition; and

2. Humility, for we were all taken in for a time by evil, and, if not for God’s Providence, things could have turned out much, much worse. And almost did.

I leave it as an exercise to the readers of BC to map Jane Austen onto our current situation.

L3