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03/21/2003 Archived Entry: "Birds in Pride and Prejudice"

I've mentioned Pride and Prejudice in the past -- it's one of my favorites and there's always good discussion about Jane Austen, her books and adaptations at Pemberley.com. (The 1995 adaptation starring Colin Firth is called PP2 at Pemberley.) I didn't realize that someone had done a study of the bird songs used in the audio! The bird call that really catches peoples' attention turns out to be a peacock, but the sounds throughout are mostly very appropriate. "PP2 starts with a more or less constant background setting of house and tree sparrows chatting in the background (when Lizzie approaches Longbourn), and they are also heard at the breakfast scenes at Hunsford later on. Breeding under the tiles, a constant companion for rural Englishmen at early 19th Century (and still existing). The setting of rural England is further emphasized by the rooks that can be heard at Longbourn (Bennet family leaving church), later on when Jane and Elizabeth take their leave from Netherfield and ecen later at Rosings. We can hear more typical countryside birds; chaffinches, jackdaws, blackbirds, pheasants (later on shot at by mr Bingley?) and songlarks."