Of This Place I Might Have Been Mistress

Austen, who almost never stops to describe a room, gives a whole house two chapters. Sadie Stein thinks the novel pivots here, at Pemberley, where the estate itself takes the witness stand and so does the housekeeper, who has known its owner since he was four and cannot say enough. Elizabeth walks in a tourist, sure of her story about Mr. Darcy; then the worst thing imaginable happens. Before dissecting the encounter, Stein offers a theory from her own wardrobe about running into the person you least want to see. And she leaves you with a reversal most readings miss: by now, who is at whose mercy?