Alone at the parsonage, rereading Jane’s letters and finding fresh reasons for anger in every line, Elizabeth hears the doorbell. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 34 of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: the first proposal, the great collision at the center of the novel.

Mr. Darcy walks in, paces the room, and can hold it no longer. “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.” What follows is eloquent on the subject of his affection and equally eloquent on the subjects of her inferiority, his family’s expectations, and the degradation the match involves, delivered by a man with no doubt of his answer.

• Darcy proposes at length and against his judgment, dwelling on the obstacles of her birth and connections with a warmth that seems very unlikely to recommend his suit.
• Elizabeth refuses him with civility that erodes fast, and when he asks why, she opens with Jane: could he deny that he divided her sister from Mr. Bingley? He cannot, and has no wish to.
• Wickham comes next, and Darcy’s contempt meets her fury; her verdict lands like a blow: he could not have behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner, and he is the last man in the world she could ever be prevailed on to marry.
• He hears her arraignment of his pride, his conceit, and his selfish disdain for the feelings of others, wishes her health and happiness with bitter composure, and is gone.