Mrs. Wickham
By: Sarah Page / Narrated By: Jessie Buckley, Johnny Flynn, Emily Barber, Fehinti Balogun, Adrian Edmondson, Leila Farzad, Stephanie Hyam, Jodie McNee, Natalie Simpson, Ray Panthaki, Emily Johnstone
Length: 2 hrs and 3 mins
A True Delight!!!
So here it is, and no I’m not proud of it but feel a tad sheepish in admitting it:
Ya know that P&P movie, the one with Keira Knightley? Yeh that’s the one. Well, see, m’ good friend Jennifer and I have watched it, like, over 30 times. Dunno what it is, but I’m pretty sure it’s the Best. Darcy. EVER!!!!
But the thing is, ingrained in m’ imagination as it is, the Lydia in it has become, well, The Lydia ONLY every single danged time I listen to P&P on audiobook (The many Many MANY versions I have), and she’s The Lydia ONLY who’s ever come to mind in the many Many MANY P&P Variations I’ve listened to as well. And maybe it’s just me, but it seems as tho’ each narrator has seen that movie version as well as their Lydia characters are just as twittery and flirtatious and insipid as she was in the flick.
Enter Mrs. Wickham wherein I go for an audio Production that redeems her from her own worst actions. Namely being, she went and shagged George Wickham, dashed off to elope with him with nary a thought for Family or Consequences, and winds up Waking Up in a most disheartening manner. You know, I mean, it’s LYDIA for cripes sake!
At first I was a trifle worried as I did NOT look closely, and I hurried it into m’ Library before noting the whole, Contains Mature Themes. As I started my Listening, and I heard THAT declared? Oh good golly gosh: 28-hours of Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife flashed before poor abused brain cells and toes that are stiiiiiilllll in the process of uncurling. Mature Themes?! Oh dadblast it! I full-well know what THAT means!
And then, as I dithered further into the production, I was a tad all at-sea cuz I was wondering if this was a Modern setting for twittery Lydia. After all, there’s all this 60s-style electric guitar and drumbeat stylings, and I know that’s not Original P&P Era.
One more little: Mmmmph? Narrator Jessie Buckley is NOT twittery in the slightest. Rather, she’s a bit of a husky voice, and I was all, whazzaaa?!
But I dismissed all these whazzis and whazzaaas and settled in to see what had been written. After all, PLEnty of Variations I’ve undertaken have been vaaastly Non-Canon, so mightn’t I just shut m’ brain up a tad and just enjoy?
And enjoy I did!
Buckley turns simpering dithering dolt Lydia into a full-throated and good-humored girl with a truly delightfully full-bodied laugh (That includes a graceless and chuckle-inducing snort at the end of her guffaws). When it all hit the fan, and Wickham sports his true colors, she’s crestfallen, yes, and Buckley’s hoarseness makes ya really feel bad for… LYDIA for cripes sake!… and we start to sympathize with her, despite the whole She Made Her Bed… thing.
But then the writing has Lydia bucking up and doing what must be done, whether it’s storming the pub before Wickham can drink their last farthing or it’s saying Hello to the prostitutes she’s come to know as she drags him out from between their legs (The Mature Themes thing…), commenting and properly admiring the stitchery on their stockings as she does so. Yes, there are the times Wickham has left them NOTHING, and so she must beg Jane for money to tide them over, but when that doesn’t pan out, she’s left to her own devices.
Pariah as she is, she’s nothing to lose and plenty of creativity to implement. With excellent sewing skills, she begins stitching risqué undergarments and starts selling them to wives of soldiers. Oh, she makes a killing, yes, but dearer to her? She’s no longer on the Outs but chortles with them over tea and gossip.
Until, she discovers, in public? Nope, her transgressions, her patched-together wedding are still a disgrace.
This fleshes out a character like no other Variation I’ve listened to, and it manages it in a purely believable manner. Lydia was ALWAYS about Fun and Chatting and Friendships, so of course we feel her joy even as we feel her misery (Tho’ NOT Shame!) at finding herself still outcast.
There’s a beyond hiLARious friendship of sorts that builds with Wickham’s Commanding Officer, and it’s this that finally, slowly, baaaaarely starts to move Wickham’s needle. He starts seeing Lydia as someone who just miiiiight be desirable. And when he finds out how much money she’s been bringing in, he begins to feel just a smidgen of respect.
It’s a very slow morphing that is completely irresistible, as I do so love a good romance. And, as written, as voiced, she is believable and her emotional bleakness tugs at the heartstrings.
With a vaaaast cast of narrators, with the thumping and jangling electric guitar as punctuation, with another character who’s actually worse off than Lydia, this entire production is mighty engaging and enjoyable as all get-out. Every time Lydia snorted her laughter, I was won over by her, this simpering character that I’d never given much thought to.
And the Mature Themes? Oh good cow, NOT the Nasty but Wickham and his prostitutes, and Lydia chiming in with a minor bit of humorous innuendo every now and again. So >PHEW< !!!
2-hours that I wished was much longer, but seriously: It was perfectly done, edited so well, and yeh yeh yeh, just the right length if I must admit it. Everything that had to happen happened slowly and cleverly, and Jessie Buckley?
Perfection!
Lydia! Redeemed…
I KNOW!!!
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