pride and prejudice......

ok, so my middle child is to read p&p for ap english.....and it is killing me that his teacher considers himself the expert on the subject.......and so i want to guide readers, as they read....to look out for certain themes that this guy may miss....such as........the posibility that charlotte lucas was gay......and married mr collins as a marriage of convenience.......and that mr collins is one of the most deliciously adsurb characters ever described in novel form.......bombastic from the get-go.....and totally unaware of his own ridiculousness......and the anne de bourgh.......as the anticlimax of all that was considered desirable in a proper wife...a counter-point to jane and elizabeth bennett...the comsumate ideal spouses....and mrs. bennett....the worst-case scenario for a mother-in-law.....and mr.bennett......a guy who would have chosen early senility if it were in his power.....was austen a comedic novelist?.....or merely satirical?.....the more i read her i am nto sure which...or either......could she have intended to be so insightful into the lives of us in 2005?................ah...this is one of my favorite books......my eldest barely read the book....but still scored a 5 on the ap test because he had overheard the 6 volume a&e version so many times.........i am partway through on my own umpteenth reading......i hear it calling me now.......