Penny drops

There's a lot of information in my head right now and for the most part it's lying dormant until I need to call it up for written responses or my exams. However, there's also a lot of Austen knowledge sitting underneath everything and either a) affecting how I read things or b) being illuminated by what I read.

Today, b) happened as I was flipping through some books about 18th century architect Robert Adam at the university library, books which included some beautiful colour pictures. One noticeable aspect of all the rooms is just how big they are. And suddenly I realized that when Miss Bingley asks Elizabeth Bennet to "take a turn about the room" at Netherfield in Pride and Prejudice, it's not as silly a suggestion as it sounds to modern ears. Plans for drawing rooms at this time featured measurements as large as 20 feet by 25 feet, or 23x23 feet. The BBC miniseries adaptation of the novel shows this, but one thing (of many) that I hated about the 2005 Keira Knightley adaptation is how small the room is in the comparable scene. Poor Miss Bingley and Miss Eliza walk dizzyingly around Darcy and the room feels more stuffy than it should. After all, ceilings in contemporaneous houses ranged from 13-15 feet high. Can you imagine? 15 feet high ceilings? And many of them ornamented? The mind boggles.