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Jane Austen is known for her depictions of proper ladies and genteel gentlemen. The leading ladies are always the antagonists of her novels as the romantic plight of her heroines takes center stage.
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But it’s the men who intrigue the reader’s imagination and prompt all of the delicious drama.
Here’s our official ranking of Jane Austen’s top five most agreeable men, based on their best dialogue (among other things):
1) Captain Frederick Wentworth – Persuasion
Captain Wentworth is strong emotionally (and probably physically), and has weathered all, figuratively and literally, as he lived a life of daring on the high seas for many years. He falls in love with Anne Elliot at a young age, and, being a being a feeble drip, Anne is persuaded to reject him because he isn’t rich enough.
Rather than wallow in self-pity, Wentworth goes off to make his fortune in the Royal Navy. He returns a self-made man with a how do-you-like-me-now attitude of firm resolve, proves everyone wrong, and gets the girl, all the while maintaining an irresistibly respectable air of dignity.
Qualities: stern in a manly way, upright and loyal, romantic, wears a uniform
He is an expert on preserving strength of character even when the going gets tough:
“Here is a nut. To exemplify, a beautiful glossy nut, which, blessed with original strength, has outlived all the storms of autumn. Not a puncture, not a weak spot anywhere. This nut … while so many of its brethren have fallen and been trodden under foot, is still in possession of all the happiness that a hazel-nut can be supposed capable of.”
He has disdain for easily influenced weaklings:
“It is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on. You are never sure of a good impression being durable; everybody may sway it.”
He’s also a passionate lover:
“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago.”
Swoon!
2) Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy – Pride and Prejudice
Darcy didn’t win top billing because he is kind of a jerk at the beginning of P&P. He didn’t think his future wife was “handsome enough” to tempt him at first, and he did almost forever “ruin the happiness of a most beloved sister.”
That being said, he does transform eventually, and didn’t we all sort of enjoy his surliness while it lasted, anyway?
Qualities: Pemberley, “wonderfully handsome,” high standards, brooding stare, ten thousand pounds a year!
Call it pride or obstinacy, Darcy gets props for being true to his principles:
“My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”
He’s intense and refreshingly straight to the point:
“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.”
“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.”
3) Colonel Christopher Brandon – Sense and Sensibility
Hear me out on this one.
Yes, Colonel Brandon is a little on the older side, at least for the youthful Miss Dashwood. Marianne questions whether his “advanced years” (he’s 35) and “his forlorn condition” prevent him from ever being “animated enough to be in love.” He “must have long outlived every sensation of the kind,” she says, because of such infirmity.”
Ouch.
Brandon is a tortured soul, but he bides his time, waiting in the wings as the strong, silent type, and goes on to live happily ever after. Brandon’s old flame marries his brother, who never loves her, then they separate and she becomes a whore. She has a daughter, then dies, and Brandon raises the baby. The little girl grows up and is seduced by Willoughby, who impregnates then abandons her.
Did I mention that all the while, Brandon is painfully smitten with Marianne, whom Willoughby is about to propose to?
So. Much. Drama.
Brandon eventually duels with Willoughby, whose sleazy character is found out, and Marianne realizes that the Colonel is actually really superb and learns to “put up with [his] age and infirmity.” Brandon also gives Marianne’s sister’s love interest (Edward, more on him later) a means to provide for his wife… what a guy!
Qualities: “highly esteemed,” gentle, generous, patient, helpful, “silent and grave”, not afraid of a fight, “sensible countenance,” “gentlemanlike manners of speech when in company”
He doesn’t need to say much. Just look at that list of qualities!
4) George Knightley – Emma
George Knightley is straight-forward and frank. He is constantly bickering with Emma, “loves to find fault” with her, and serves as her “only critic,” though as a witty busy-body, she could use several.
Even though he loves her, George is not weakened by her beauty or feminine wiles, but remains a voice of reason guiding headstrong Emma to sense and truth.
Qualities: honest, dutiful, playful, intelligent, wise, unpretentious, firm
He isn’t a mincer of words:
“Emma knows I never flatter her.”
“Better be without sense than misapply it as you do.”
“Badly done, Emma!”
He’s determined:
“There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by maneuvering and finessing, but by vigor and resolution.”
He’s still sweet and appreciative, even after all of the arguing and being so hard on the snobbish Emma (who deserved it):
“I cannot make speeches, Emma . . . If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me. I have blamed you and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it.”
“Marry me. Marry me, my wonderful, darling friend.”
5) Edward Ferrars – Sense and Sensibility
Qualities: “Gentlemanlike and pleasing,” “mind is well-informed, imagination lively, his taste delicate and pure,” pleasing expression of his eyes, sweet countenance
Edward is the bumbling, awkward type, sweet, but tortured by his own regard for other people’s feelings as well as his own. He is dutiful and conscientious, willing even to sacrifice his own life-long happiness for an undeserving woman to whom he made a promise.
Edward knows how to live:
“There was no necessity for my having any profession at all.”
“As I might be as dashing and expensive without a red coat on my back as with one, idleness was pronounced on the whole to be most advantageous and honourable.”
“I have no wish to be distinguished; and I have every reason to hope I never shall. Thank Heaven! I cannot be forced into genius and eloquence.”
As well as honest and adorable:
“I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness.”
“I felt that I admired you, but I told myself it was only friendship; and till I began to make comparisons between yourself and Lucy, I did not know how far I was got.”
Honorary mentions:
Mr. Charles Bingley – He’s good-natured, handsome, easy-going, lively, has “happy manners,” and is in possession of a good fortune. You could never be in a bad mood with Mr. Bingley around. He’s always pleasant and in a good humor, which must be difficult to accomplish with Mr. Darcy as a best friend.
John Willoughby – He is Colonel Brandon’s sort-of rival. He rescues Marianne after she falls down a hill and twists her ankle and he escorts her home in a romantic rainstorm. He’s dashing and oodles of fun, but also a sleaze, as he abandons a girl he gets pregnant, and spurns Marianne for someone richer. Although, for his part, he does at least have regrets about the whole thing.
Mr. Wickham – He’s charming, that’s for sure – “Whatever he said, was said well,” and a prime example of the meaning of “handsome devil.” He sports a uniform, the dramatic cape of which lends to his “amiable appearance.” Too bad he has terrible judgment and chooses Lydia over Lizzy – the person he deserves for all the hearts he needlessly breaks.
Mr. Bennett – The Bennett family patriarch is so saucy – I bet he was a real catch back in the day. (Does anyone know why he chose such a silly woman and all her “nerves” to be his wife?)
Mr. Collins – Just kidding!
And nobody likes Northanger Abbey.
