Mr. Darcy, Mr. Knightly, and the South Pole

Many things have their season, and in my house, January and February are Jane Austin Season. We are completely compulsive some years, watching everything we can find that even seems Jane Austin-y for weeks on end. This year it was just for a few days. I had to get some onerous task done, like folding piles and piles of laundry, so I pulled out the BBC "Pride and Prejudice" to ease my suffering. Yes, I'm referring to the 6 hr long one with Colin Firth coming out of the pond right as Elizabeth walks into the garden. I swear his discomfort and lack of composure cracks me up.

Every. Single.Time.

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My girls came home just in time for the second half and watched all of it that day. The next day was a Saturday and they watched the first half. Then they put in the Keira Knightly one and watched all of that one too, just for good measure.

Now, I know the battle rages on about which version is better. And the purists will always love the BBC one, because it IS the book. But I have a major soft spot in my heart for the new one. Simply because it is so pretty. And Jane is so lovely that I want her to be my sister too. And it's two hour running length is much more fit-able into my life-able.

Wait. I can feel you doubting my sincerity here. You think I am holding something back.  I am completely aghast. I would never!....Oh alright, I admit it. I LOVE Matthew Macfadyen as the new Mr. Darcy. The way he yearns in the face of Elizabeth's refusal and his whispered "Please...." just makes me weak.

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And I can't even think about him walking across the field at dawn....

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I mean, seriously. The poor girl never had a chance against cinematography like this.

So each winter seems to bring a new Jane Austin production into my life. The most recent acquisition was the newest BBC version of "Emma", starring Romola Garai.

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Now while this is an absolutely charming production in general, I never thought this movie would impact my life in any significant way. And while it still hasn't, one of the characters in it, Mr. Knightly, has emerged to have an amusing, if completely insignificant, impact on my blog.

On this most recent viewing of Pride and Prejudice with my children, I was talking to my oldest daughter about how her father reminded me so much of Mr. Knightly.

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 She agreed, but said, "Daddy's not quite as even tempered as Mr. Knightly." I found this terribly amusing and suggested that he was a "darker" version of Mr. Knightly. She got the funniest look on her face and suggested, "Dark Knightly....hmmm. Maybe we should start referring to him as 'Dark Knight?'" So friends, just for future reference, I will henceforth and forever be referring to my sweet and long suffering husband as DK, short for "Dark Knight," short for "Darker Knightly". (Can you just feel him reading this, rolling his eyes, and then walking away, shaking his head?)

 DK in self portrait at the South Pole

How can you not fall completely, deliriously, eternally in love with a man who wears a skunk hat at the South Pole? Especially when he slips while showing off  and almost knocks over the Geographic South Pole 3 days after it had just been painstakingly measured and set for the year. I was strictly forbidden from posting the footage of that one. I guess even a man who totes a skunk hat to the South Pole deserves to have at least a little dignity preserved.