Episode 1
Amanda Price, a keen Jane Austen fan from present-day Hammersmith, who has just rejected the unromantic marriage proposal of her boozey, unfaithful boyfriend, discovers the Pride and Prejudice character Elizabeth Bennet in a nightgown in her bathroom. Amanda explains to her mother that Jane Austen's novel has shown her that she can set higher standards for a husband for herself. Elizabeth appears in her bathroom again, this time dressed for travel.
Amanda curiously steps through a secret doorway hidden in the wall that Elizabeth had shown her, and finds herself in the house of the Bennets, Longbourn, at the beginning of the novel. Amanda is trapped in this world, and Elizabeth is meanwhile in 21st century London where she becomes a nanny. Mr. Bennet is hospitable, accepting her as his daughter's good friend while Elizabeth visits "the city".
Amanda tries to ensure that the novel progresses as it should. But she keeps mucking it up. When Mr. Bingley visits Longbourn, he admires Amanda more than Jane.
At the Meryton Assembly Hall she tries to reject Mr. Bingley's interest. She cannot dance with him because Mr. Darcy has already asked her. Mr. Bingley calls her bluff but Darcy backs her up and dances with her saying he was trying to save Bingley from embarrassment. Amanda gets drunk and kisses Bingley, immediately regretting it.
Mrs. Bennet is furious and warns Amanda not to interfere with her daughters' marriage prospects. Later, Amanda forces Jane to travel to the Bingleys' home in bad weather to get the novel back on track. But when she learns that this may give Jane a fatal attack of grippe (influenza), Amanda follows her to save her.
Read more about this topic: Lost In Austen, Plot
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“The press is no substitute for institutions. It is like the beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about, bringing one episode and then another out of darkness into vision. Men cannot do the work of the world by this light alone. They cannot govern society by episodes, incidents, and eruptions. It is only when they work by a steady light of their own, that the press, when it is turned upon them, reveals a situation intelligible enough for a popular decision.”
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