Lady Catherine de Bourgh

I have a bit of fondness for Lady Catherine, having played her part, some yeas ago, in a duo speech with a friend of mine. We acted out the argument between her and Elizabeth, and now every time I come across that part when I'm flipping through P&P I laugh.

What do you think of Lady Catherine? Do you think that, perhaps, she may have respected (not quite admired, I think) Elizabeth's spurning of society mores? I think I've read somewhere that she eventually grew acclimated to Elizabeth and grudgingly accepted her as Darcy's wife. What's Lady Catherine's story?

Well, she did accept the match but grudgingly. And i think Austen says in the end that it could be either because of genuine affection for Darcy or to see how his wife conducts herself in 'high' society.
I personally think it is the latter. Though, for all i know, she did genuinely love Darcy, her dislike of Elizabeth and her class in general wasn't the easily-repressed type.
I like Lady Catherine's part in the novel. It is one of the few that make the novel interesting.

I don't know... She seems very proud and distant, but is she really like that? Is she not really lonely, and does she not really love her nephew? I personally think the affection for her nephew won it from her pride, like Darcy's affection for Elizabeth wins it from his pride...
When she comes to make sure Elizabeth doesn't get engaged to Darcy, she intimates her wish for her daughter to get married to him. No doubt because the two fortunes would mean a lot for the status of their children.
Was she herself not noble blood or her husband, but then empoverished? I think she already sees her grandchildren with an enormous fortune, getting a title from somewhere, because the more money you have the easier you attract empoverished nobility...
I think that the moment where Darcy breaks all contact, after abuse on the address of his wife, she realises what she has lost, and when he takes up contact again, I can imagine he told her that it was Elizabeth who told him to do so. No doubt the theme of pride firstly reflected in Darcy, comes back, and she is surprised maybe that someone would still want to see her after that and she goes to Pemberley to get to know his wife... And she realises that her daughter was really not the right wife for Darcy.

She's his aunt, therefore she's a very proud woman. These days social status was very important so if other people saw this (even Darcy), it's no surprise her reaction as she wanted to unite both fortunes.
She is used of having her way as many rich people, so that's why she's so dissapointed when she confronts Elisabethe who is not afraid of her and doesn't let herself be intimidated.