Plot Summary
Chapter 14 of Pride and Prejudice presents an evening of comic entertainment at Longbourn as Mr. Collins holds forth on the magnificence of his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. After dinner, Mr. Bennet deliberately draws his cousin out on the subject, knowing full well that Collins will prove absurd. Mr. Collins obliges with an extended, self-important monologue cataloguing Lady Catherine's condescensions — her approval of his sermons, her invitations to dine at Rosings, her advice that he marry, and her visit to his humble parsonage where she even "vouchsafed to suggest" some shelves in the closet upstairs.
Mrs. Bennet and the De Bourghs
Mrs. Bennet, characteristically focused on practical matters, inquires about Lady Catherine's proximity, her family, and her daughter. Mr. Collins describes Miss de Bourgh in the most flattering terms — repeating Lady Catherine's own assertion that her daughter is "far superior to the handsomest of her sex" — while simultaneously revealing that the young woman is sickly and has made little progress in her accomplishments. He boasts of the delicate compliments he pays to Lady Catherine, including telling her that Miss de Bourgh "seemed born to be a duchess."
Mr. Bennet's Dry Wit
Mr. Bennet's expectations are fully satisfied: his cousin is "as absurd as he had hoped." He listens with "the keenest enjoyment" while maintaining perfect composure, sharing only an occasional knowing glance with Elizabeth. When Mr. Bennet asks Collins whether his flattering speeches are spontaneous or "the result of previous study," Collins earnestly admits that while they arise from the moment, he does sometimes prepare elegant compliments in advance — entirely missing the satirical edge of the question.
The Reading Episode
By tea-time, Mr. Bennet has had enough amusement and invites Collins to read aloud to the ladies. Collins agrees but recoils from a novel (from a circulating library), protesting that "he never read novels." Instead he selects Fordyce's Sermons to Young Women, a famously didactic conduct book. After barely three pages of monotonous reading, Lydia interrupts with trivial militia gossip about her uncle Phillips and Colonel Forster. Rebuked by her elder sisters, Collins lays aside the book with a pompous lecture about how "little young ladies are interested by books of a serious stamp." He then challenges Mr. Bennet to backgammon, and Mr. Bennet accepts with the wry observation that Collins acts "very wisely in leaving the girls to their own trifling amusements."
Themes
This chapter is Austen at her most satirical. Mr. Collins's obsequiousness toward Lady Catherine is so extreme that it becomes comic — his every anecdote is designed to reflect her grandeur and his own self-importance. Mr. Bennet's detached amusement at his cousin's expense demonstrates his characteristic wit but also hints at a certain cruelty in treating others as entertainment. The Fordyce's Sermons episode highlights the gap between Collins's moralistic pretensions and the Bennet girls' lively spirits, while also serving as Austen's own quiet commentary on the patronizing literature aimed at women in her era.