Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a character in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. According to Janet Todd, Lady Catherine can be seen as a foil to the novel's protagonist Elizabeth Bennet.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Lady Catherine and Elizabeth in the more simple Hertfordshire by C. E. Brock, 1895
Pride and Prejudice is the second novel by English author Jane Austen, published in 1813. A novel of manners, it follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of the book, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
Title page of the first edition, 1813
Mr Darcy says Elizabeth is "not handsome enough to tempt him" to dance. (Artist: C.E. Brock, 1895)
Elizabeth and Mr Darcy by Hugh Thomson, 1894
In a letter to Cassandra dated May 1813, Jane Austen describes a picture she saw at a gallery which was a good likeness of "Mrs Bingley" – Jane Bennet. Deirdre Le Faye in The World of Her Novels suggests that "Portrait of Mrs Q" is the picture Austen was referring to. (pp. 201–203)