Is Mr. Middleton the new Mr. Bennet?

The Daily Mail described Michael Middleton's role in the Royal Wedding as thus:

His role has, in short, been most unusual – stripped of the few patriarchal pleasures still allowed to the rest of us embattled blokes. He may have found himself reflecting on the life of Denis Thatcher. Or possibly even Jane Austen’s Mr Bennet, father of five daughters.

Prince William, Catherine, and Michael Middleton

Ah, Mr Bennet. When Jane Austen wrote him into Pride And Prejudice, she succeeded in creating a kind of literary patron saint for dads with daughters.

He, of course, had good daughters (Jane and Elizabeth) and bad daughters (Mary, Kitty and Lydia). Lizzie was his closest confidante, whose marriage to the vastly eligible Mr Darcy, must have been a mixed fortune. But his younger daughters were dimwits or debauchees. 

Happily for Michael Middleton, his own girls Kate and Pippa seem modelled from the same clay as Elizabeth and Jane.

Read more: The Daily Mail