Wealth, A Marital Aphrodisiac
I put on my penguin reading glasses (my dears, at my advanced age, I will admit to using bi-focals) and took a gander after many a decade at Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” (Do love the classics.)
And I had forgotten about that opening statement pondered by scholars and PhD’s and other students low these many, many years. (And who am I, a mere penguin to even think about commenting on such an important literary classic, I am Horace Horatio III, that’s who.)
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Opening sentence, Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.”)
Well that was back in 1797, (my goodness, written even before I was born) and it is now the year 2007. Quite some time has passed. My.
And when I read that sentence in the year 2007, I thought to myself, “a single man in possession of a good fortune can get pretty much any wife he wants, thank you very much. No matter how ugly or unpleasant he may be, a wealthy man will never die alone, that is if he doesn’t feel like it.”
(And I think that applies to wealthy women as well.)
Such a cynic that my vast and important life has made me.
But it is my observation that this notion of “inner beauty” and “inner wealth,” although much chit chatted about, doesn’t really count for much, or if truth be told, if anything, when it comes right down to this mating thing.
Well, looks help, but wealth is so much more of an marital aphrodisiac.
There’s nothing like a good bankruptcy to find out who your friends really are, or if you end up with any friends at all. So the wealthy out there, do stay solvent and prosper and pick the human of your dreams. Most likely he or she will be most obliging.
Horace Horatio III