[Pride and Prejudice] Becoming Catherine Bennet

[Main story complete, bonus chapters updating +3+] New book: "[Victorian] Miss Fielding's Marriage". Please add it to your reading list! After a car accident, a young woman from the 21st century unexpectedly transmigrates into the body of Catherine, the fourth daughter of the Bennett family, a family of country gentlemen in the late 18th century. In an era when women have no independent legal status or property rights, Catherine is prepared to live alone for the rest of her life. She plans to use her inheritance to buy a little house, write books, and raise cats. If she has any money left, she'll cover her desk with expensive muslin and set a vase of gorgeous fresh flowers on it. But... what? This is the world of Pride and Prejudice? What? Mr. Darcy, you're proposing to me? But do you know the real me? I'm no lady. I won't just sit inside playing the piano and picking up a needle. I won't study dancing and Latin just to earn other people's praise, and I certainly won't sit idle in a vast estate, waiting for you to come home from your busy day and spare me a moment of attention. There's a poem I love. Let me recite it to you now: "We share the mist, the drifting clouds, the rainbow. As if forever apart, yet bound together for life..." I, Catherine Bennett, am first and foremost myself, before I take on any other identity, including that of your wife. [Notes] * Some research has gone into the historical details, and I've tried to stay true to the facts, but there are bound to be many inaccuracies, so please bear with me. The translations consulted were those by Sun Zhili and Li Jihong. * The style and plot are close to the original, while the emotional setup is more modern. (Some readers said the blurb sounded cheesy... but others have said they changed their minds after reading it ^+^) * A sweet story, updated daily around 11 p.m. (I'm a humble, busy office drone.) Career, romance, and family plotlines all feature. * The poem in the blurb is from Shu Ting's "To the Oak Tree." The poem in the one-line description is from Yeats's "When You Are Old," translated by Yuan Kejia. A little plug for my upcoming story, "[Victorian] Miss Fielding's Marriage." You can save it from my author page! As everyone knows, there are three young ladies in the Viscount Fielding family. The eldest, Charlotte, is breathtakingly beautiful and renowned throughout the area. The second daughter, Veronica, is a talented young woman, skilled in everything from etiquette, poetry, dance, and embroidery to Latin. The third daughter is called Daisy. Oh, why not say a few words about her? I've never heard of this young lady having any particular distinction. I suppose she's quite ordinary, with nothing worth praising. Daisy, pretending she never saved anyone, made money, found an older brother, or latched onto a powerful patron: You're right. * Dai, outwardly a ditz, inwardly thinking, "That's right, I'm amazing," West has spent over a decade living off others, when she suddenly realizes she's about to reach a dead end in life. She has three choices: 1. Take her elder sister's place and marry her disgraced, mentally unstable fiance. 2. Let her father and brother decide her fate, and become an old duke's second wife. 3. Leave home penniless, with no property, and end up on the streets. Daisy: Help! How do I protect my little stash of money so my cold, heartless, unreasonable family won't find it and take it? Answer soon, this is urgent. Leonard: There's one way. Daisy: ? Leonard: Marry me. * Literary version: "Because he is the sunrise, and I have seen him." Plain version: "I thought of you as my big brother. How dare you want to marry me?" A heroine who looks fragile and helpless but is actually very wily and good at lying low vs. a hero who looks fierce and cold, and really is very fierce and cold. Theme: An utterly ordinary love story