Blogame mucho: O clássico mais lido de sempre na Grã-Bretanha

24.11.05

O clássico mais lido de sempre na Grã-Bretanha

Por mail, uma admiradora de Jane Austen (e particularmente de Pride and Prejudice) mostrou conhecer, à vírgula, a declaração de amor de Mr. Darcy a Elizabeth Bennett:
In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.

Lamenta não se lembrar, com semelhante rigor, a resposta de Elizabeth. Não admira, que é bastante mais longa e começa assim:
In such cases as this, it is, I believe, the established mode to express a sense of obligation for the sentiments avowed, however unequally they may be returned. It is natural that obligation should be felt, and if I could feel gratitude, I would now thank you. But I cannot - I have never desired your good opinion, and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly. I am sorry to have occasioned pain to any one. It has been most unconsciously done, however, and I hope will be of short duration. The feelings which, you tell me, have long prevented the acknowledgment of your regard, can have little difficulty in overcoming it after this explanation.

O discurso de Elizabeth é longo e acutilante. Humilhada, mas orgulhosa, conclui desta forma arrasadora: From the very beginning, from the first moment I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that ground-work of disapprobation, on which succeeding events have built so immoveable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.

Quando se chega a este capítulo, já há muito se adivinha que Mr. Darcy, embora nunca o declarando, se deixou encantar por Elizabeth. E que Elizabeth, ainda que se empenhe em mostrar indiferença, senão desprezo, pela arrogância altiva de Darcy, há-de soçobrar. Por muitas vezes que se leia o livro, o que nos prende à leitura é a vontade de saber se será na página seguinte que os dois, finalmente, se entenderão. Procuramos, claro, o brilho dos amores impossíveis.