Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of emotional abuse, suicidal ideation, and death.

Evie’s fascination with Regency romances is introduced immediately in Chapter 1, as she looks for the framed poster of Pride and Prejudice in her bedroom. She’s smitten with the 1995 BBC production starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, an adaptation that has gone on to enjoy the status of a romantic classic, not least due to Helen Fielding’s bestselling Bridget Jones Diary (1996), in which protagonist Bridget Jones, like Evie, has a long-standing crush on Firth’s Mr. Darcy. Evie’s obsession is meant to signal a kind of innocent longing for the subtle forms of romantic and sexual yearning created in the film and other literary adaptations of Austen’s novel. Her references to Pride and Prejudice and to Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights show how Evie is slightly out of step with her peers, who demonstrate more sexual sophistication and more contemporary tastes than she does at 16.

Her interest in early-19th-century marriage plots symbolizes her vulnerability to Oliver, who wins her over through chivalric gestures intended to emulate the male heroes of these novels. This manipulation is in stark contrast to Drew’s sincerity when he agrees to dress in Regency attire for the formal to make Evie happy.