Pride and Prejudice — Complete List of Indefinite References

This document tracks entities referred to only by pronouns, demonstratives, or idiomatic expressions rather than proper names in the novel. It catalogues expressions whose referents cannot be identified without context—such as “this gentleman,” “that lady,” “his friend,” and “a certain person”—together with their actual referents, locations by chapter or section, and classifications.

Use it to decide whether a pronoun should be made explicit or preserved in translation.

A. Indefinite Expressions Referring to Specific People

A-1. Expressions Referring to Mr. Darcy

#	Original Expression	Speaker/Narrator	Location	Context	Translation Guidance
1	"another young man"	Narrator	Ch.3	The Bingley party is introduced at the ball, immediately before “his friend Mr. Darcy”	Darcy's first designation, before his name appears: preserve “another young man”
2	"the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world"	Narrator, voicing neighbourhood opinion	Ch.3	His reputation after the ball	The neighbourhood's verdict: preserve the superlative condemnation
3	"the gentleman"	Elizabeth	Ch.6	After “Mr. Darcy is all politeness,” she calls him “the gentleman”	Ironically formal
4	"that gentleman"	Mrs. Bennet	Ch.9	“And that gentleman seemed to think the country was nothing at all”	Contempt expressed by refusing to use his name
5	"so great a man"	Narrator through Elizabeth's viewpoint	Ch.10	“she could be an object of admiration to so great a man”	Ironic: she cannot imagine that “so great a man” could admire her
6	"a certain gentleman"	Wickham	Ch.16	He speaks indirectly instead of naming Darcy	Wickham's calculated rhetoric constructs an object of blame without naming him
7	"the gentleman we were speaking of just now"	Wickham	Ch.16	“the church ought to have been my profession... had it pleased the gentleman”	Reduces Darcy to “the gentleman,” withholding his personhood
8	"your friend" / "his friend"	Various speakers	Throughout	Darcy as Bingley's friend	Preserve the possessives: Darcy is treated as Bingley's appendage rather than an independent person
9	"my cousin"	Colonel Fitzwilliam	Ch.33	From “a friend from a most imprudent marriage” to “Darcy could not wish to be generally known”	He tries, unsuccessfully, not to identify Darcy directly
10	"one in that mansion"	Narrator through Elizabeth's viewpoint	Ch.44	“her thoughts were at Pemberley... towards one in that mansion”	Emotional confusion prevents her from naming him: preserve “one in that mansion”
11	"our kind friend"	Mrs. Gardiner	Ch.52	Refers to Darcy in Mrs. Gardiner's letter	She avoids his name and writes “our kind friend” out of consideration for Elizabeth

A-2. Expressions Referring to Elizabeth

#	Original Expression	Speaker	Location	Context	Translation Guidance
12	"one of her sisters sitting down just behind you"	Bingley	Ch.3	He tries to introduce Elizabeth to Darcy	She is “one of her sisters sitting down just behind you,” without a name
13	"the young lady"	Mrs. Reynolds	Ch.43	“Does that young lady know Mr. Darcy?”	The housekeeper's curiosity because she does not know Elizabeth's identity
14	"your fair partner"	Sir William Lucas	Ch.18	He speaks to Darcy about Elizabeth while they dance	“Your fair partner” unintentionally links the pair
15	"a very genteel, pretty kind of girl"	Lady Catherine	Ch.29	She appraises Elizabeth to Charlotte	It sounds complimentary, but “kind of” diminishes her: preserve the faint condescension
16	"the lady" / "the lady's family"	Fitzwilliam	Ch.33	“strong objections against the lady”	The woman separated from Bingley is Jane, but Elizabeth applies the remark to her own family

A-3. Expressions Referring to Jane Bennet

#	Original Expression	Speaker	Location	Context	Translation Guidance
17	"the eldest Miss Bennet"	Darcy	Ch.3	“You are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room”	Identifies Bingley's partner
18	"a sweet girl"	Bingley's sisters	Ch.4	They “pronounced her to be a sweet girl”	Surface praise that contrasts with their later disparagement
19	"her eldest daughter" / "my Jane"	Mrs. Bennet	Throughout	Jane as the object of her favouritism	Preserve the possessive favouritism of “my Jane”
20	"that person"	Jane herself	Ch.24	“do not pain me by thinking that person to blame”	Her hurt prevents her from naming Bingley
21	"your sister" / "Miss Bennet"	Darcy	Ch.35, letter	Refers to Jane in his letter	Note his maintenance of formality through “Miss Bennet” rather than only “your sister”

A-4. Expressions Referring to Wickham

#	Original Expression	Speaker	Location	Context	Translation Guidance
22	"the stranger"	Narrator	Ch.15	Wickham's first appearance	His name has not yet been revealed: preserve “the stranger”
23	"a young man" / "a young gentleman"	Mrs. Reynolds	Ch.43	Looking at Wickham's miniature: “son of her late master's steward”	The housekeeper does not name him and mentions only his origins
24	"your favourite"	Miss Bingley	Ch.18	“I pity you, Miss Eliza, for this discovery of your favourite's guilt”	A sarcastically possessive “the man you favour”
25	"that worthless young man"	Mr. Bennet	Ch.48	Refers to Wickham	Anger and contempt: preserve the harshness
26	"one of his officers" / "W."	Jane's letter	Ch.46	Abbreviated while reporting the elopement	The urgency of the letter reduces his name to an initial
27	"the son of old Wickham, the late Mr. Darcy's steward"	Miss Bingley	Ch.18	Disparages Wickham's origins	Emphasizes class by calling him the son of the late Mr. Darcy's steward

A-5. Indefinite Expressions Referring to Other People

#	Original Expression	Actual Referent	Speaker	Location	Context
28	"a young man of large fortune from the north"	Bingley	Mrs. Long, relayed by Mrs. Bennet	Ch.1	The first rumour of Bingley, before anyone knows his name
29	"the person of whom I speak is a gentleman and a stranger"	Collins	Mr. Bennet	Ch.13	Announcing Collins's visit; Mrs. Bennet mistakes the person for Bingley
30	"a near relation to my patroness"	Darcy	Collins	Ch.18	He “discovers” at the ball that Darcy is Lady Catherine's nephew
31	"the lady who superintended her education"	Mrs. Younge	Collins	Ch.14	Mentioned as Miss de Bourgh's governess, without a name
32	"one of the most worthless young men in Great Britain"	Wickham	Narrator	Ch.50	From Mr. Bennet's viewpoint, the worst possible son-in-law
33	"his friend" (saved from imprudent marriage)	Bingley	Colonel Fitzwilliam	Ch.33	The person Darcy boasts of separating, reported without a name
34	"a man of honour"	Darcy, ironically	Wickham	Ch.16	“A man of honour could not have doubted the intention”: an ironic conditional description of Darcy

B. Indefinite Places and Objects

#	Original Expression	Actual Referent	Location	Context	Classification
35	"such a place as Gracechurch Street"	Gracechurch Street	Ch.25	Elizabeth wonders whether Darcy even knows this part of town	Place
36	"this house" / "that house"	Longbourn House	Throughout	Mrs. Bennet says “this house” when lamenting the entail	Place
37	"his own place" / "his own county"	Pemberley / Derbyshire	Ch.4	The “own county” in which Bingley may purchase an estate	Place
38	"that part of the world"	The Longbourn area	Ch.31	Elizabeth wished to preserve her credit “in that part of the world”	Place
39	"---- Street"	Wickham and Lydia's hiding place	Ch.52	The address is withheld in Mrs. Gardiner's letter	Place, secret
40	"the ----shire"	The county of the militia regiment	Throughout	The county in the regiment's name is left blank	Group, anonymized
41	"General ----'s regiment"	The regiment to which Wickham transfers	Ch.50	The general's name is left blank	Group, anonymized

C. Indefinite Events and Situations

#	Original Expression	Actual Referent	Speaker	Location	Context
42	"a most imprudent marriage"	Bingley and Jane's relationship	Fitzwilliam	Ch.33	Indirectly reports Darcy's intervention
43	"some cause of disapprobation"	The reason Mrs. Younge was dismissed	Mrs. Gardiner	Ch.52	Darcy does not disclose the grounds for dismissal
44	"a circumstance which I would wish to forget myself"	The Georgiana–Wickham affair	Darcy	Ch.35, letter	A hesitation immediately before revealing his most painful secret
45	"what had passed between the Bingleys and Jane"	Miss Bingley's intervention	Narrator	Ch.30	Elizabeth probes Darcy by mentioning Jane's stay in London
46	"the unhappy truth"	Lydia's elopement	Elizabeth	Ch.46	She tells Darcy, “Conceal the unhappy truth as long as it is possible”
47	"that wretched business"	The Lydia–Wickham scandal	Narrator	Ch.46	Connected to “this early example of what Lydia's infamy must produce”
48	"a certain desirable event"	Jane and Bingley's marriage	Sir William Lucas	Ch.18	He mentions it publicly at the ball, prompting Darcy's attention
49	"that very improbable event"	Bingley and Jane's reunion	Elizabeth	Ch.40	She withholds the details of the separation from Jane

D. Blanks (----): Austen's Deliberate Anonymization

Austen deliberately replaces certain proper names with blanks (----). This contemporary novelistic convention creates an impression that the story concerns real people and places.

#	Original	Referent	Translation Guidance
50	"the ----shire"	The county of the militia regiment	Preserve the blank as “----shire”; do not specify a county
51	"General ----'s regiment"	The general's name	Preserve as “General ----'s regiment”
52	"---- Street"	Wickham and Lydia's hiding-place address	Preserve as “---- Street”
53	"Lord ----"	Colonel Fitzwilliam's father, an earl	Preserve as “Lord ----”

Translation principle: Do not fill in or conjecture the blanks. The blanks are Austen's stylistic choice and part of a game with the reader—the convention of pretending that the story is true.

E. “it” / “this” / “that”: Key Pronoun Referents

The most frequent source of confusion in translation is determining what “it” refers to.

#	Original	Referent of “it”	Location	Interpretation
54	"It is a truth universally acknowledged"	The entire proposition that follows	Ch.1	Anticipatory “it”; the extraposed subject is “that a single man...”
55	"if he had not mortified mine"	mine = my pride	Ch.5	“My pride” contrasted with “his pride”; Elizabeth has pride too
56	"I have not the smallest hope. It is every way horrible!"	Lydia's entire situation	Ch.46	“it” means the possibility that Lydia will not be found and will not marry
57	"It will not do."	The attempt to suppress his feelings	Ch.34	The first sentence of Darcy's proposal; “it” is his effort to repress his feelings
58	"This was a lucky recollection — it saved her from something like regret"	The thought that the Gardiners could not have been invited	Ch.43	“it” is Elizabeth's realization that marrying Darcy would have separated her from her aunt and uncle
59	"It taught me to hope"	The report of Lady Catherine's visit	Ch.58	“it” is Elizabeth's refusal to promise her aunt that she would reject an engagement
60	"If you will thank me, let it be for yourself alone"	The object of gratitude	Ch.58	“it” is gratitude for rescuing Lydia; Darcy admits that he acted “for you alone,” not for her family