I enjoyed your comment about the figures and was glad to learn that. However, I am not sure I would agree with your interpretation of the Austen text as Darcy admitting to physical attraction.
You see the difference? He saw something interesting about her, not just a pair of lovely eyes that in another face would not have made him think further.
Yes, he is noticing that her figure is light and pleasing, but at the same time, he is being intrigued by her manners. They're different from what he would usually expect. He likes her style -- playful, fun (I know, fun is not a Regency word.) A man who takes himself seriously and speaks to Bingley of how men of consideration in the world can have certain expectations, finds Elizabeth setting his expectations on the ear. His recognition of her physical attributes follows his seeing what a spritely, lively and engaging woman she is -- something special, something different.
Just my opinion and others may argue that is physical attraction. But I think of physical attraction as more along the lines of Elizabeth's first response to Wickham, how she noted he was so much more fine than the other soldier and especially her Uncle Phillips. Wickham made you think, now there's a man. Elizabeth changed her mind later, of course, but Wickham's physical beauty had a big impact on her impression.
Similarly, Bingley was gobsmacked by Jane's beauty--most beautiful creature he had ever seen. And, as it turned out, he found in talking with her that she was gentle, demure and altogether as much the angel in manner as she was in looks. No wonder physical attraction led to love, although the poor boy was misled for awhile.
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True, it was her eyes, but not just because her eyes were pretty: Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes.
You see the difference? He saw something interesting about her, not just a pair of lovely eyes that in another face would not have made him think further.
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To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness. Of this she was perfectly unaware; -- to her he was only the man who made himself agreeable no where, and who had not thought her handsome enough to dance with.
Yes, he is noticing that her figure is light and pleasing, but at the same time, he is being intrigued by her manners. They're different from what he would usually expect. He likes her style -- playful, fun (I know, fun is not a Regency word.) A man who takes himself seriously and speaks to Bingley of how men of consideration in the world can have certain expectations, finds Elizabeth setting his expectations on the ear. His recognition of her physical attributes follows his seeing what a spritely, lively and engaging woman she is -- something special, something different.
Just my opinion and others may argue that is physical attraction. But I think of physical attraction as more along the lines of Elizabeth's first response to Wickham, how she noted he was so much more fine than the other soldier and especially her Uncle Phillips. Wickham made you think, now there's a man. Elizabeth changed her mind later, of course, but Wickham's physical beauty had a big impact on her impression.
Similarly, Bingley was gobsmacked by Jane's beauty--most beautiful creature he had ever seen. And, as it turned out, he found in talking with her that she was gentle, demure and altogether as much the angel in manner as she was in looks. No wonder physical attraction led to love, although the poor boy was misled for awhile.