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The Jane Austen Society of Australia << Back to Sensibilities: Index of articles
Extracts from Sensibilities
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‘A critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Buonaparte’: What on earth was Jane Austen thinking of?
In her letter of 4 February 1813, Jane Austen wrote famously that Pride and Prejudice was
In vain have I scoured Pride and Prejudice for direct clues about a critique on Scott or a history of Buonaparte. I therefore write under entirely false pretences, because what I will argue is that Jane Austen’s attitude to both these gentlemen may be pieced together from her re-visioning in Persuasion of Scott’s first three novels, especially where she swerves away from his assumptions about inherent nobility and the inferiority of women, or contradicts Napoleon’s misogyny towards the ‘tenderest sex’. But I promise to come back to Pride and Prejudice in the end... ... and to read more, join JASA and receive your twice-yearly copy of Sensibilities free.
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Little Things Mean a Lot; or Why Our 10th Re-reading of Pride and Prejudice Still Surprises Us
Pride and Prejudice is a book title that most people somehow know: as if simply by osmosis, they have absorbed this famous catchy title into their brains. Indeed, for the majority of Austenites, Pride and Prejudice may well have been the first Austen novel they read – probably in their early teens – making this book a person’s frequent introduction to the Austen canon. Once we read Pride and Prejudice, we’re hooked. But as well as serving as Austen bait, Pride and Prejudice is a novel that we re-read over and over again. Aside from the unusually strong emotional pull that this novel exerts as we long for Elizabeth and Darcy to get together – even though we know from ten previous readings of the book that they will – our tenth re-reading of the book (that is, reading number 11) still has much to tell us. This does not mean we read carelessly or stupidly the first ten times. Rather, in addition to Austen’s marvellous storytelling ability and knack for perfectly capturing human behaviour, she also weaves subtleties into her novels that frequently require several re-readings to uncover. What appear to be simply little things, throwaway lines – we realise when we catch them – are not throwaway lines at all. Every line is important in a Jane Austen novel. Thus, comes my inspiration for ‘Little Things Mean a Lot; or Why Our 10th Re-reading of Pride and Prejudice Still Surprises Us.’ Each time I read this book, I realise something new that surprises me about characters I think of as old friends... ... and to read more, join JASA and receive your twice-yearly copy of Sensibilities free.
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‘Pride and Prejudice: The Favourite Novel?’
The question mark is everything, in other words. It lets in the second thoughts and reservations one is bound to have, as well as recollections of the other novels by Jane Austen that might just as easily, perhaps even more aptly, fit the bill. Mansfield Park: the most teasing and thought-provoking novel? Persuasion: the most emotionally involving and satisfying novel? Emma: the perfect novel? (In English literature according to some; the perfect novel, without qualification, according to others; ‘and please, drop the question mark’, members of both groups would probably add.) But it is probably true that Pride and Prejudice is ‘The Favourite Novel (question mark)’.1 Examples of what makes Pride and Prejudice so pleasurable are not hard to find... ... and to read more, join JASA and receive your twice-yearly copy of Sensibilities free.
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‘Such a man as Darcy’: masculinity in transition in Pride and Prejudice
In December 1814, Mary Russell Mitford wrote:
This favourable opinion of Mr Darcy was shared by many of Austen’s friends and relations, including Cassandra and Fanny Knight. It was also shared by Annabella Milbanke, the future Lady Byron, who wrote in 1813 that ‘the interest [of Pride and Prejudice] is very strong, especially for Mr Darcy’. Between these contemporary reviews of Austen’s novel, and the response of viewers to the Mr Darcy presented in the BBC television adaptation of the novel, some 200 years after the character was created, it is clear that Austen’s characterisation of Darcy is vital to the interest and success of Pride and Prejudice and to its being, perhaps, the favourite novel. Mitford’s phrase – ‘such a man as Darcy’ – is reflected in several of Elizabeth’s opinions throughout the novel. During her stay at Netherfield, Elizabeth ‘hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great a man’. Later, at the Netherfield Ball, she is vexed to see Mr Collins ‘expose himself to such a man’. And when Darcy first proposes, ‘she could not be insensible to the compliment of such a man’s affection’. In this paper, I would like to examine the masculine type or ideal which lies behind ‘such a man as Darcy’. Darcy represents masculinity in transition, and in her creation of the Darcy character, Austen participates in contemporary discussion of gender roles and responsibilities... ... and to read more, join JASA and receive your twice-yearly copy of Sensibilities free.
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No Mysteries in Udolpho: Jane Austen reads Ann Radcliffe
It is 1794 and in France the Terror has come and gone. Its architect, Robespierre, has gone to the guillotine. England is still at war with France, and will be for years to come. It is an era of turbulence and paranoid anxiety, the end of a Romantic attempt at political change gone cruelly and terribly wrong. In this climate Ann Radcliffe published The Mysteries of Udolpho. Born in 1764, Ann Ward married William Radcliffe, a reporter for the Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, a radical Whig newspaper. He later bought The English Chronicle or Universal Evening Post and also had some of his own work published. These connections were a probable aid to Ann’s literary career but, as William was often away, she spent the greater part of her life at home writing, and researching from art and travel books the material for the not-too-accurate depictions of European geographical features that distinguished her work. In 1794 she received the enormous sum of £500 for The Mysteries of Udolpho, a ground-breaking Gothic romance. Jane Austen, not yet twenty, read it, as she read in all probability, Mrs Radcliffe’s previous works – The Castle of Dunbayne, A Sicilian Romance and The Romance of the Forest. Udolpho was a resounding success, appearing in all the circulating libraries, and read and discussed in the manner that best sellers are today - for example Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, which provoked an article in the Sydney Morning Herald’s 'Spectrum': it could be argued that the popularity of this current theological mystery thriller is a response to the uncertainties the world is facing today, just as the upsurge in the production of Gothic fiction tapped into the fears engendered throughout Europe by the extremes of the Revolution in France. Be that as it may, Udolpho had an enormous impact. By 1823 it had been translated into the major European languages and it is still in print today... ... and to read more, join JASA and receive your twice-yearly copy of Sensibilities free.
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'But Who Was Your Mother?' Mothers and Daughters in Jane Austen’s Early Novels
Lady Catherine de Bourgh visits Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice on hearing of an engagement between this young lady and Mr Darcy, Lady Catherine’s nephew. Her desire to prevent their marriage springs from her belief in the unsuitability of Miss Bennet as a match for such an esteemed gentleman as Mr Darcy. Her objections, vehemently put to Elizabeth, centre on the girl’s parentage, and whilst she acknowledges that Elizabeth is the daughter of a gentleman, she queries her maternal line by asking ‘But who was your mother?’ This question is my starting point for a wider examination of the significance of mother figures in Pride and Prejudice and Austen’s earlier work, Sense and Sensibility. Who are these women, and how significant are they in the novels? These opening questions will, in turn, involve in-depth investigation of mother-daughter relationships in Austen – how do the heroines, Elizabeth Bennet and Elinor Dashwood, relate to their mothers, and what function does motherhood play in the narrative of their lives? With eight daughters between them, Mrs Bennet and Mrs Dashwood are mothers on a somewhat grand scale. There are numerous other mothers in the texts as well: Mrs Jennings, Lady Middleton, Lady Lucas, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mrs Gardiner and a second Mrs Dashwood (the former Fanny Ferrars). My approach here is to analyse how Austen uses language and dialogue to model different kinds and styles of mothers and maternal figures... ... and to read more, join JASA and receive your twice-yearly copy of Sensibilities free.
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The Scientific World Of Mr Knightley
Mr Knightley, Jane Austen’s most estimable character, was intelligent, perceptive, considerate, generous, thoughtful and liberal. He is certainly a man interested in the world around him. We are told by Jane Austen that he studies maps, is keen to learn of new agricultural methods, reads widely, can make judgments with clarity and accuracy, and travels to London regularly. On reading Emma we find, too, that he brewed spruce beer, which he and Emma and Mr Elton enjoyed, and that he maintained a fine family collection including examples of corals and shells, which he greatly enjoyed showing to Mr Woodhouse. If we can take the year of his birth to be within a year or two of 1780, we can say that when Jane Austen wrote of him in 1815 he had lived his first 35 years during one of the great periods of development in England and the world. The agricultural revolution was still in full swing. As a farmer he would have followed some of these farming developments with great interest. He couldn’t fail to observe the rapid industrialisation that was taking place in England. Both revolutions required the application of some science, though often it was just acute observation and invention by practical and clever men, with the science behind it all not understood until later years. But scientific developments were occurring during his first 35 years that were to lead to the greatest of discoveries – experiments and deductions were being made that led to our modern understanding of the composition of matter, from simple substances to complex chemicals, and how different substances react with each other. It was during this period that some of the most basic chemicals such as oxygen and hydrogen were first isolated and named. Simple reactions were performed, such as making water from these two gases, and making metal oxides by burning metals in air and then recovering the metals by a reverse chemical reaction... ... and to read more, join JASA and receive your twice-yearly copy of Sensibilities free.
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