For those of us who love Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, we cannot but help feel sorry for poor Mrs Bennett when she moans she only has daughters and no son to inherit her husbands estate. So, she has to put up with Mr Collins turning her out of her home as soon as Mr Bennett dies.
But five daughter’s and no son’s? Surely Jane Austen was using poetic licence with that?
Well it seems not, because today I met a lady who has four daughters and quite literally can’t have son’s.
The reason is that she has inherited a genetic disorder which means her body rejects male foetus’s.
Sadly, it also means she has had numerous miscarriages, and they were all boys. The only pregnancies which went full term were girls.
Apparently there is also a similar genetic disorder where only boys are born…
Let’s hope if this was the case for Mrs Bennett that Elizabeth wasn’t afflicted with this, and the Bennett sisters were just all girls by coincidence.
Jenna Dawlish
2 Responses
Kimberly Job says...
Cute Site! I found you from the link on Goodrads.
Donna Hatch says...
I absolutely adore Pride and Prejudice! I think I’ve seen every version that’s out there. Although I hear there’s an old one with Laurence Olivier out there that I haven’t seen yet.
I didn’t know about the genetic disorder. That certainly explains why some families have 8 boys and no girls!