Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy has long held a reputation as one of the most eligible bachelors in English literature. Many have imagined the brooding Fitzwilliam Darcy as tall, dark, and handsome, a wealthy, aristocratic leading man loved by generations of readers. In film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, he has been played by Laurence Olivier (1940) and Matthew Macfadyen (2005). And who can forget Colin Firth’s portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC miniseries. But now, in a study commissioned by the British television channel Drama, researchers have put together the first “historically accurate portrait” of Mr. Darcy. And surprisingly, they say he probably wasn’t all that “hunky” — at least by 21st-century standards. In the 1790s, the ideal English gentleman would usually have had pale skin, a long nose, a pointed chin, and sloped shoulders. Instead of dark wavy hair, he would most likely have powdered his hair white, or worn a powdered wig.
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„Puikybėje ir prietaruose galima rasti tik Fitzwilliam Darcy fizinio aprašymo iškarpas“, – sako tyrimui vadovavęs akademikas Johnas Sutherlandas. „Jis yra mūsų paslaptingiausias ir geidžiamiausias visų laikų lyderis.
Projekto iliustratorius Nickas Hardcastle’as sako, kad Darcy būtų turėjęs labai raumeningas šlaunis ir blauzdas dėl viso laiko, kurį džentelmenai praleido fechtuodami ir jodinėdami.
„Darcy personažas buvo pamėgtas šiuolaikinei publikai su turbokompresorine testosterono injekcija ir audringa romantika“, – sako Amanda Vickery, Londono Karalienės Marijos universiteto istorikė.