Was there a real person behind the character Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pride and Prejudice fame? According to The Daily Express, one academic named Dr. Susan Law feels that that may very well be the case.
Law argues that while she cannot be totally certain, she feels that John Parker (the first Earl of Morley) served as a muse for Jane Austen’s famous romantic male lead. She devoted five years to conducting extensive research over letters, diaries, newspapers, and a field trip.
Here’s more from The Telegraph: “Austen, she says, spent time at the Earl’s home in Saltram House in Plymouth, Devon, during the period in which she wrote Pride and Prejudice at the turn of the 19th century. The Earl’s second wife, Frances, was also a very close friend of the celebrated writer. At the time, the historian claims, it was widely believed in literary circles that Frances was in fact the author of Pride and Prejudice, which had originally been published anonymously.”