8). This phrase demonstrates that although Elizabeth soon afterwards accuses Darcy of "a propensity to hate everybody" (Ch. 11), she too enjoys having people to dislike, so as to take ironic pleasure from the absurdity of their various character defects. Pay attention to the role this trait has in shaping Elizabeth's changing view of Darcy's character. .
Kitty and Lydia's obsession with "officers" should be understood in the historical context in which Austen wrote. Between the time when she first started the novel that would eventually become *Pride and Prejudice* and that novel's publication (1797-1813), Great Britain was at war with France and her continental allies almost without cease. The regiment stationed at Meryton thus came in for some patriotic adoration on the part of many of the young women, among them Kitty and Lydia. Their various flirtations, of course, are motivated by something less than pure-hearted love of country.
I.xiii-xviii Commentary.
This section raises a couple of social practices, accepted in Austen's day, that are foreign to modern readers: the entailment and the living. Many landed estates such as Longbourn were entailed in Austen's time: that is, they could not be bequeathed by their current owners or occupiers (in this case Mr. Bennet) solely as suited them; some other condition or conditions had to be fulfilled by the prospective inheritors. Common conditions of entailments included being required to have the original owner's first or last name; to reside at the estate being inherited; or, as in the case of Longbourn, to be male. Since Mr. Bennet has no direct male heir to satisfy this provision of Lonbourn's entail, the estate on his death will pass to his nearest male relative, his cousin Mr. Collins. Today's readers may find themselves in the unusual position of siding with Mrs. Bennet on this one, but Austen's audience would have found the business of entailment, though unpleasant to be caught o!.
