Mr Darcy is a cherished figure in romantic literature. Created by the great Jane Austen in the oft-adapted and swooned-over Pride and Prejudice (which was voted the second best British book ever, right behind the Lord of the Rings, in a 2003 BBC poll), the character has for decades inspired in novelists and romantic girls alike a longing for aloof men with guarded hearts of gold and deep reservoirs of passion not easily tapped.
While Colin Firth will always perfectly embody Lord Darcy for me, I've heard that Matthew Macfadyen (who I adored as the simpering, fey and degenerate Sir Felix in The Way We Live Now) is pretty terrific in the recent Keira Knightley adaptation that I've yet to see; however, it was the dashing Laurence Olivier that first gave the character on-screen life in the classic 1940 film written in part by Brave New World author Aldous Huxley.
But not everyone is pining for the man; in this article by Cherry Potter she scolds us and calls him “the epitome of the dominant patriarchal male.”
But what do you think?