When a twelve-foot-high fiberglass statue of wet-shirt-Darcy was erected in a famed London lake last summer, it seemed the apotheosis of Janeite tackiness, not to mention a harbinger of general cultural decline. It still does. But it’s almost worth it just for this photo of the statue being removed from its most recent home, the lake at Lyme Park where Colin Firth’s famous scene was filmed for the BBC's 1995 Pride and Prejudice adaptation.
I feel this picture cries out for a caption. “Bingley, these desperate efforts to draw me into a dance are doomed to failure. She is tolerable, but not tall enough to tempt me”? “I knew that her relations were decidedly beneath me – but nonetheless, I am shocked by the discourtesy of this reception”? “I fear that the inhabitants of this planet have peculiar notions of costume drama”?
Further suggestions welcome. . .