He may be 200 but he's STILL my perfect man

Just imagine: the dashing Mr Darcy is 200 years old this week. I believe that entitles him to three bus passes – and yet he is still the ultimate romantic hero.

He was introduced to the world on 28 January 1813 and became famous overnight, as did his creator Jane Austen. But the extraordinary thing is that he has remained so enormously popular for two centuries. The book has now sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and has spawned countless adaptations on both the big and small screens.

One can’t help wondering why. Well, I believe that these days, whenever Mr Darcy comes to mind, we women all think of Colin Firth, that marvellous, good-looking actor who portrayed him in the sixhour, 1995 mini-series on British television.

It was a hugely popular dramatisation, which The New York Times called ‘a witty mix of love stories and social conniving, cleverly wrapped in the ambitions and illusions of a provincial gentry’.

It won a Bafta best actress award for Jennifer Ehle, who played Darcy’s love interest Elizabeth Bennet, and elevated Colin Firth to stardom. As an actor, he has never looked back.

The scene of Colin, clad seductively in a wet shirt, was recognised at the time as ‘one of the most unforgettable moments in British television history’. Other actors have played Mr Darcy, including Laurence Olivier, Peter Cushing and Matthew Macfadyen, but almost everyone considers Colin Firth to be the best.

But how does this 200-year-old leading man have so much staying power and why does his character still resonate with us so much today?

Well, I have always believed that, as human beings, we have never really changed. In 2013, we have the same human instincts, traits and characteristics, both good and bad, as our forebears. We behave slightly di— erently in certain situations, of course, and we must ˜ t in with the manners and mores of our time. But our basic emotions and feelings echo those of our great-great-greatgreat- great-grandparents, those relatives of ours who would have been contemporaries of Austen – and Mr Darcy.

In other words, while Mr Darcy would doubtless look rather out-of-date if he were to be caught walking in his breeches down a modern British high street, we would still empathise with him.

Ultimately, he is not so di— erent from the men we know today. Indeed, Darcy is very much of the 21st century, despite being born in the imagination of a 19th-century woman. In fact, 183 years on, Helen Fielding used the book as inspiration for her own 1996 bestseller, Bridget Jones’s Diary. She named her leading man Mark Darcy – and he was even played by Colin Firth when it, too, made its leap on to the big screen.

In Pride and Prejudice, when we meet 28-year-old Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy (his Christian name is only mentioned twice in the book), he is handsome and rich, but far from perfect. He is from a fine family, has an income in excess of £10,000 a year and is the master of Pemberley, a large Derbyshire estate. But he is also a snob, status-conscious and awkward. He could be a leading man in any number of modern dramas.


He refuses to dance with Elizabeth Bennet when they first meet at a ball, curtly describing her as ‘tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me’. In fact, for Elizabeth, it is hate at first sight.

He clashes with her constantly, interferes in his friend, Mr Bingley’s relationship with Elizabeth’s sister Jane, and is generally a grumpy antagonist. He also finds it difficult to find a niche in local society. This is all perfect stuff, of course, for inevitably it leads to countless complications, misunderstandings, ruffled feelings – and a good deal of pride and prejudice.

Indeed, the model is often used in modern novels. The twist works now just as it did then – and I have often used it myself, for it becomes very suspenseful for the reader, who hopes that all the antagonism will, somehow, turn to love.

But to understand Mr Darcy’s truly enduring popularity with readers and TV viewers, let’s look at another leading man.

Byronic-style heroes were popular in 19thcentury fiction and Heathcliff, protagonist of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, is a case in point. Brontë was one of our great literary geniuses and created Heathcliff from old cloth. He was moulded from dark forces and was difficult, temperamental – in many ways, a most unlikely hero. Offended and hurt when he hears Catherine Earnshaw discussing him with Nellie, the housekeeper, he runs away – before Catherine confesses to Nellie how much she loves him.

Years later, when he returns to Wuthering Heights – rich, prosperous and more polished – he discovers Cathy is dying – and he sets out to wreak revenge on her entire family. This is where the book becomes very different from Pride And Prejudice.

To me, Wuthering Heights has always been a paean to death and a story of revenge – it has never been a love story. And perhaps that is why Wuthering Heights has not had the great popular success of Jane Austen’s book.

For ultimately, Heathcliff is a hero who can’t compete with the much more normal, adaptable and ultimately ‘acceptable’ Mr Darcy. For while the difficult Mr Darcy starts off resembling Heathcliff, he evolves – largely thanks to the love of a good woman, Elizabeth – into a reasonable, thoughtful and kind, modern man. He is, in effect, tamed. And what woman doesn’t, at least secretly, love the idea of taming a wild man. Especially one as handsome as Colin Firth.

Barbara Taylor Bradford’s new novel, Secrets From The Past, will be published by HarperCollins on 28 February.

Mr Darcy in brief

• The most famous of Jane Austen’s male characters.
• Elizabeth Bennet’s love interest in Pride And Prejudice.
• He is referred to throughout the novel as Mr Darcy. His Christian name, Fitzwilliam, is only used at two points in the book.
• He has been portrayed on the big and small screen 20 times since 1938, with actors taking on the role including Laurence Olivier and Colin Firth.
• Darcy is 28 years old and from a wealthy background. He has an income of £10,000 per year and owns the Pemberley estate in Derbyshire. He has a younger sister called Georgiana.
• When first introduced in the story ‘he soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien’.
• Elizabeth’s relationship with him for the majority of the novel is antagonistic. It is only after he saves Elizabeth’s sister from social disgrace after she runs away with Mr Wickham that their relationship changes.
• Helen Fielding has said that Pride And Prejudice was a great inspiration for her novel Bridget Jones’s Diary and named a main character, Mark Darcy (also played by Colin Firth in the film), after Austen’s male protagonist.
• His legacy as a figure of female desire is such that a male mouse pheromone was named Darcin in his honour.