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What is it with women and Mr Darcy? He’s rude, arrogant and anti-social. Not the kind of thing most girls look for in a guy, right? In fact,  if he came up to you in a club, you’d probably hit him with your handbag, then stamp on his foot before pouring your drink over him … and yet he is one of literatures most enduring fictional romantic icons, capturing the hearts of women from 1812 right up untill now.

He hardly seem ‘relevant’ to us modern ladies, and yet he has survived the centuries, having had many incarnations since his debut on the pages of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice!  You remember Rhett Butler,  what about Mr Big or even James Bond?  Yes, they all have that something that makes them irresitable to women (and I’m talking more than money here!) while at the same time being less than perfect.

So what is it that makes Mr. Darcy so attractive? Surely, it doesn’t come down to the high collars and cod pieces?

I have my own theories and here are just a few of them.

1) The Fariytale Never Gets Real

“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.”

Pride and Prejudice ends with the promise of marriage but we never get to see Mr Darcy five or ten years into marriage. And probably just as well, because I’m sure if we did, he wouldn’t be so alluring. Part of what we love about Fitzwilliam Darcy is the adoration he has, at first secretly and then openly, for Elizabeth. Ending the novel as she does, Austen leaves us with a Mr Darcy suspended in a perpetual state of adoration for Elizabeth. So, we love our Mr Darcy because we want him to adore us.  A pretty selfish reason, I know!

2)  We want to Save Him From His Emotional Pain

We love him too, because we want to be that special woman who has the power to deliver him from his angst. There’s no doubt, Mr Darcy is a man who is shy and struggles with it, his stand-offishness being a ruse because he is  scared  to reveal the more vulnerable part of himself.  There’s the promise for us of something softer beneath that hard austere exterior that makes him very hard to resist. We want to be the woman who can win the battle over his conscience. We want to be bigger than his principals, so desirable that he would sacrifice all he believes in for us. Now that would make us very special indeed! Still being selfish!

3 ) He is A Good Old Fashioned Man

Dare I say it, but we love Mr Darcy because he is a good old fashioned man! For us romantics the age of chivalry is not quite dead and gone.  Mr Darcy is rich and successful! He is fabuously good looking (yes, I’m thinking of you Colin), morally upright and would likely make a devoted husband, since his principles, at the very least, would dictate it.  Money, looks and devotion … the perfect package!

At the end of the day, what makes Mr Darcy so desirable isn’t necessarily his gentlemanly-ness.  It is his battle with his self-expectations and the norms of his social class. This coupled with the intense shyness that he struggles with as he tries to recognise this new feeling of love for Lizzie endears him to us;  as he gradually opens himself up her, we see the great changing love of an already great man, and that makes him adorable.   Mr Darcy is the perfect romantic hero.

If you’re still not getting what all the fuss is about …..

And if you are wondering hy Mr Darcy is so befuddled in this scene …

Do not remove your waistcoat, Mr Darcy!

To be seen in shirtsleeves was considered positively indecent; a shirt, after all, was the man’s last undergarment. Poor Mr Darcy, he completely lost all composure on being discovered positively nude!

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I never know whether it’s a good idea to read the book before the movie. No matter how great the movie is, you’re always going to compare it to the first version of the story you came to know.  And the first of everything is very often the best, if only because it was the original, and originals warrant respect.

When I first picked up Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man in the bookshop, I hadn’t intended to read it. I knew I was going to see the film later in the week so I picked up it casually, more interested in checking out Colin Firth’s picture on the cover than reading what was inside. But as you do, I opened the cover to glance at the first line. It was liked being rapidly sucked into another consciousness.  The first lines were so captivating and tragic.  I’ve never picked up a book and been rooted so deep into the character so quickly.

Waking up begins with saying am and now. That which has awoken then lies for a while staring up at the ceiling and down into itself until it has recognised I, and therefore deduced I am, I am now.

It’s a testament to the quality of Isherwood’s writing that despite all of the publicity I’d seen for this movie before reading the book, I didn’t at all picture Colin Firth as Isherwood’s George. Isherwood’s George, is hardly described physically in the book at all. The book is far more concerned with George’s inner psyche rather than his outer appearance. We learn he is 58 and so far older than Tom Ford’s George and many of the elements introduced to give the movie the kind of dramatic oomph that appeals to cinema audiences, are absent in the book. In the book, George, is not, despite his crippling grief, suicidal.

So book or movie?

There’s no doubt that A Single Man, the film, is a visual feast. The direction was arty with lots of deep emotion being conveyed through close up shots of sultry eyes and sexy lips. It was beautifully designed and some of the scenes were like photographic prints come to life (I’m thinking Jennifer Strunk in her blue dress).  Tom Ford seemed to make characters abundant in life, physically portrayed (the tennis players),  and this did set the perfect backdrop for George’s dismal struggle to go on participating, and find the energy for life in himself.  Jim too was portrayed as a free spirit, this freedom and energy for living were the very things that attracted to George to him.  Even Julianne Moore, playing Charlie, as tragic as her character is, was colourful and lively.  The story of A Single Man as it goes in the movie is definitely far more glamourous, like an old house that has been given a style makeover.  I still loved it for what it was. Cinema engages the audience differently. There are certain expectations for dramatic twists and turns and visual flair. Tom Ford delivered this. There was some tension and the amazing underwater dream sequences that punctuated the storyline were captivating to watch and brought the audience back to George’s pain very subtely.

The movie did depart from the book in many ways. Isherwood’s George is not suicidal. In fact, I think, Isherwood would have hated Ford’s character’s suicidal tendencies. Isherwood’s George, in spite of his grief, still counts himself part of the ‘minority’, those who are living and appears to think that it’s the right place to be, inspite of all the pain.

Isherwood’s Charley is also far more of a mother-earth, hippie character.  While Ford’s Charley, played brilliantly by Julianne Moore, is glamorous and desperate, I prefer her to Isherwood’s Charley, if only because the on screen Charley is far more tragic.

Also Isherwood’s George, never had a sexual relationship with Charlie in the past. I preferred it that way.

On balance, I enjoyed the book more.  The book was able to take the reader further into George’s emotional drama and because of this the story seemed even more tragic.

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