Happy Friday!

Today I have a special treat for you. Mama Kitty from Mama Kitty Reviews is doing a guest post today. Recently I helped to escalate Ms. Kitty's love of all things Pride and Prejudice by constantly harping about Mr. Darcy to her and giving her some of my favorite Pride and Prejudce fan fiction/adaptations to read and since that's all we've been talking about lately, we decided it would be fun to do a guest post at each other's blog's today. Take a look at Mama Kitty's awesome post and then go to her blog to take a look at mine. Have an awesome weekend.

Why do I love Mr Darcy?

by: Mama Kitty Reviews

So, I’ve been in a major funk lately, which means I’ve been on a serious Pride & Prejudice kick lately. I mean really serious. I’ve watched the 2005 version with Keira Knightley (that I mostly just watch for Matthew MacFadyen – what? He’s hot) more times than I can count in the past few weeks. And when @mslizalou found out that I’d never seen the 1995 mini-series with Colin Firth, she marched herself to the post office and mailed me her copy to drool over watch. I mean honestly, have you seen Colin Firth looking so delicious? Perhaps it’s him in the role as the delectable Mr. Darcy that makes me want to crawl all over him so much...

But I digress. This is supposed to be a post about why I love Mr. Darcy so much and all I’ve managed to do thusfar is... well, squee about him like Lydia Bennet (who I want to punch in the face).

Let’s examine Mr. Darcy ‘s qualities, shall we? At first glance, he comes across as arrogant, snobbish, and rude. In fact, he says that Lizzy is not “handsome enough to tempt [him]”. It’s a wonder she gave him the time of day at all with a comment like that! Not to mention the litany of other (perceived) offenses against him:

And yet with all these things, we still love him. Why? Because underneath all these things, we see the real Darcy. We see the man beneath the layers of Pride and Prejudice (see what I did there?). When he speaks of and to his sister, you can see how much he loves her and how well he takes care of her. When Lizzy and her aunt & uncle are visiting Pemberley, you can hear how much he is respected by his staff when they are talking to Mrs. Reynolds. You know that he is a kind master and a good man.  And even when he runs off after Lizzy tells him that Lydia (the moron) has run off with Wickham, you suspect that it isn’t because he’s embarrassed to be with her or because he wants nothing to do with her, but because he’s going to do something about it because he still loves her. Because you know he’s that good of a man. Maybe it’s just my foolish, romantic heart that expects it as I read the book, but when I read the words the first time I thought to myself “He’s going to take care of it!”

Jane Austen did a fantastic job of writing a subtly sexy man without actually writing anything sexy about him. She did write a dominant man, because in those days men were very domineering. Ok, let’s face it – they’re domineering today as well, but it was... more expected back then. Anyway. He was quietly dominant, which is pretty damned sexy, if I do say so myself. He was confident, which is also sexy as hell. And yes, he was prideful, which isn’t all that sexy, even if his arrogance could sometimes be considered a somewhat sexy trait.

When Mr. Darcy fell in love, after he sorted out his feelings and got over his feelings for Lizzy’s less than fortunate circumstances of birth, he was certainly a sight to be seen. I don’t know if it’s necessarily a manly thing to say he “glowed” but whatever the guy term for it is, that’s what he did. When she was around, there was a brightness to him that made it seem like all the world’s troubles had gone away – and when you add that look to the rest of the overall SEXY that is Mr. Darcy, you get a big *swoon* from me.

So, why do I love Mr. Darcy? Well, he’s intelligent, funny (when he’s around his family and very close friends), he’s got a bit... ok, a lot of Alpha in him, and yes, he’s arrogant. What? I like ‘em a bit on the arrogant side. And even though I fought it for ages, I really like HR, and what else is Mr. Darcy but the epitome of HR?