My dear Mr. Darcy,

If there was one woman on earth who did not aspire to become an Elizabeth Bennet after reading Pride and Prejudice, she would have either been too much in love with George Wikham or had many a vicious scheme to abduct you for herself.

Complete madness or extreme bookishness call it what you will, to stalwart readers of Jane Austen you seem to get down from the realms of Pemberley comforts and into the lives of many women who, thanks to you, are led to set impossible standards in choosing men to share the forward portion of their days.

Is it worth the waiting behind the curtain of centuries-old dreamland that filled with the empire-waist muslin gowns and the fragrance of tawny pages of sonnet books? Waiting for the right man, no matter how different the times are, is as difficult as waiting for the sun to rise ending a big treacherous sleepless night. But their Mr. Darcys are never too certain to cross their fences like what you did with Elizabeth’s. Even the times change, there are certain things that can never be beaten by the time. The waiting and the hunting for men, Mr. Darcy, has only taken a different shape, but the arts and crafts and the rules and the regulations of the game are very much the same. Had you got a ticket to travel to the 21st century, you would figure out that there are more Miss Bingleys than Jane Bennets and of course hardly any Elizabeths who can never be bought with your ‘ten thousand pounds a year.’ You will realize that Mrs. Bennets have grown larger in numbers.

Checking on a list of Pride and Prejudice sequels that relate your side of the story, I was wondering whether you were just a figment of Miss Austen’s imagination or a shadowy figure who couldn’t make it to the story of her life but preserved in her ‘two inches of ivory’ for the generations to fall in love with.

At the time you fell for Elizabeth when she was doing the least bit on her part to encourage you, it was sheer consolation you offered for the women, whom until then never thought, that a man can fall in love with a woman without a single flirty glance or wink from the lady’s part. For them, you are everything a real man isn’t.

Isn’t it surprising that the living live a life of death while those who never born to tread on this earth continue to tread through the generations of fictional histories and emerge into real life as role models or trend-setters.

Too bad you never really lived and worse still the women who keep falling for you never believe that you aren’t real!