Why Darcy is still the #1 book boyfriend

Freya Sampson is the author of Most Ardently Yours, out today from Sourcebooks Landmark. Below, she discusses why Darcy still has so much appeal for readers today. (Photo credit: David Levenson)

Mr Darcy has been making readers swoon for more than 200 years, which is pretty impressive for a man who spends much of Pride and Prejudice looking grumpy in the corner of a room. On paper, he really shouldn’t work as well as he does, he’s proud, socially awkward, and his first proposal is an absolute disaster, yet generation after generation of readers list him as their number one book boyfriend. Why?

This is a question I asked myself many times while writing my latest novel, Most Ardently Yours, which sees Mr Darcy come to life in twenty-first-century London. I came to the conclusion that a large part of his appeal is that he isn’t charming in the conventional sense. He doesn’t flirt effortlessly, flash a dazzling smile, or deliver perfect lines. Instead, readers get the satisfying experience of discovering that first impressions can be wildly wrong. Beneath the aloof exterior is someone loyal, thoughtful, and capable of genuine self-reflection.

Darcy also embodies a romantic fantasy that never quite goes out of style. He’s the person whose feelings run far deeper than anyone realises. For all his awkwardness, when he loves, he loves wholeheartedly. What’s more, because of that love, he’s willing to change. When Elizabeth Bennet calls him out on his arrogance, rather than sulking, Darcy listens and does the difficult work of examining his own flaws and becoming a better person.

More than two centuries after Jane Austen wrote him, you can strip away the cravats and country estates and find a man trying, often imperfectly, to connect with other people and prove himself worthy of the woman he loves. In a world of slick dating apps and carefully curated online personas, that feels refreshingly timeless.

Sign up for the Book Riot Newsletter for more like this!