by Jane Austen
7 (p. 67) condescension: Mr. Collins intends this term in a positive light, and such usage is not entirely archaic today (the reader will encounter several terms in the novel that are no longer familiar or whose connotations have changed entirely). To a modern reader, the idea of any person condescending to another is offensive, no matter the difference in station. To a reader of Austen’s day, Mr. Collins’s sentiment would merely seem ridiculous. Austen’s purpose in placing “condescension” in the mouth of the foolish Mr. Collins is not to question the lack of equality between him and Lady Catherine, but to begin to expose the flaws of both characters.
8 (p. 154) the Lakes: The Lake District, in the far northwest of England, remains one of the most picturesque areas of Great Britain. It is associated with the Romantic school of poets, who wrote tenderly of the region. William Wordsworth lived at Dove Cottage near Lake Grasmere in this district from 1799 to 1808 and was visited there by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Walter Scott, and Thomas De Quincey, among others. Although Austen was a contemporary of the Romantic writers, she is generally not considered to have been a part of that school, although inclusion as a Romantic depends partly on one’s definition of the term. Elizabeth’s gleeful response to her aunt’s proposal—“What are men to rocks and mountains?”—is a romantic sentiment, to be sure, but its irony marks Austen’s distance from such emotional effusions.
9 (p. 205) Till this moment, I never knew myself: One of the climactic moments of the novel, Elizabeth’s declaration of sudden self-knowledge is in the tradition of the “recognition” scene (or anagnorisis ) of classical tragedy and Shakespeare. Elizabeth’s initial hubris and her error in judgment—her pride and prejudice—lead her, like a tragic hero, to misread the situation at hand and, after being enlightened, to experience an acute sense of shame. Unlike the tragic hero, Elizabeth learns of her mistake and recognizes her own shortcomings in time to make amends.
10 (p. 234) Matlock, Chatsworth, Dovedale, or the Peak: Mrs. Gardiner has decided to forego these picturesque tourist destinations found chiefly in Derbyshire, the north Midlands county where Mr. Darcy’s Pemberley is situated. The Gardiners have also decided to shorten the trip. To continue to the Lake District would have taken them much farther north than the revised plan, which already takes them a significant distance north and west of London, if we consider that they traveled in a horse-drawn coach on early-nineteenth-century roads. Although Austen does mention Chatsworth in this passage, some scholars have argued that this magnificent estate also provided the model for the fictional Pemberley. Others have suggested that Mr. Darcy, wealthy as he is, could not have supported a manor house and grounds this grand. Today the 35,000-acre estate of Chatsworth, seat of the eleventh Duke and Duchess of Devonshire (whose ancestors acquired most of the land in 1549), remains a popular tourist destination.
11 (p. 239) On applying to see the place: Domestic tourism, which included visits to stately country manor houses listed in guide-books as well as the picturesque countryside, had come into vogue in England during the eighteenth century. A touring party of the gentry class might be admitted to one of England’s great homes at certain stipulated times, often for a fee. The craze for visiting great privately owned estates coincided with the increasing tendency of the upper gentry and aristocracy to “enclose” for exclusive, private use what had previously been common lands, on which the lower classes had been able to farm and hunt for food.
12 (p. 265) gone off to Scotland: After Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753, which sought to give consistency to the laws governing marriage and to protect young heiresses and heirs against predatory suitors and upstart brides, couples under the age of twenty-one wishing to marry quickly and without the consent of their parents had to elope to Scotland, where the Marriage Act did not apply. Lydia believes, we soon hear, that she and Wickham will make the long journey to Gretna Green, which is the closest Scottish village to the English border and where speedy weddings had become something of an industry.
13 (p. 286) the death of your daughter would have been a blessing: Mr. Collins’s pompous moralizing complements Mary Bennet’s pedantic observation several pages earlier that “loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable, that one false step involves her in endless ruin.” Relationships out of wedlock were, indeed, fodder for scandal, and a young woman of good family could expect serious consequences to ensue from an extramarital affair, but Austen is also drawing on a formidable literary tradition of melodramatic accounts of the “fallen” or “ruined” heroine, whose fate was usually destitution, illness, and death.
14 (p. 298) Five daughters successively entered the world: One might wonder why the Bennets persisted in having a large family when their financial resources seemed limited and when it was possible to limit the number of children (through, for example, breast-feeding, which had become popular among the middle and upper classes under the reign of Queen Charlotte and which helps to inhibit the rate of conception). This passage suggests that part of the motivation was to have a son who would be able to preserve the estate for the immediate family. Mr. Collins’s legal claim would then no longer be valid.Austen herself came from a family of eight children, the size of which created some financial difficulties for her father, an Anglican minister. Two of Austen’s six brothers would each have eleven children, and a third would have ten. Historians have argued that the penchant for large families during this era reflects national propaganda in favor of having many children; more babies meant more bodies for the building of empire and the ongoing wars with France.
15 (p. 366) special license: Upper-class couples could be married by special permission of an Anglican bishop and without the otherwise required banns, or public proclamation for three Sundays running, of the intent to marry. Mrs. Bennet regards the procurement of a bishop’s license as a status symbol. However, in an earlier passage, Lydia and Wickham, who do not, in fact, elope to Scotland, are “married privately in town,” which means that interested parties with elite connections in London have procured them a special license to avoid the scandal of a public announcement of this undesirable marriage.
16 (p. 374) the restoration of peace: Possibly a reference to the brief peace between England and France following the signing of the Treaty of Amiens (1802), during which a number of British writers flocked to Paris. The Napoleonic Wars would soon follow. Some scholars believe that this reference suggests that Pride and Prejudice, which was published in 1813, may be set a generation earlier. Austen had indeed written a draft of the novel in the late 1790s but is believed to have substantially revised it in 1811 and 1812. It is possible that the reference applies to some other, less consequential “peace” or to a hope for a future end to the wars, which occurred in 1815.
Inspired by Pride and Prejudice
FILM ADAPTATIONS
Director Robert Z. Leonard released the first film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in 1940, with Greer Garson as Elizabeth and Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy. Eminent novelist and satirist Aldous Huxley was the screenwriter for this cinematic comedy of manners, which gently satirizes the practice of marrying for position and wealth. An eagerly anticipated feature of Austen adaptations is the depiction of the period, and although Leonard’s film does not strictly adhere to the novel (for example, it takes place in 1835), the costumes and set designs earned an Academy Award for Best Art Direction in a black-and-white film.
British novelist and Austen critic Fay Weldon was more faithful to Austen’s text when she wrote the screenplay for the 1979 BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice. Directed by Cyril Coke and filmed in the English countryside, this version features Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul. Coke devotes considerable energy in this nearly four-hour production to capturing the manners, costumes, and styles of Regency England.
Director Simon Langton’s 1995 miniseries for BBC and A&E television has eclipsed the 1979 version in popularity. Andrew Davies adapted the novel for this four-and-a-half-hour production. Much of the subtlety of Austen’s narrativ
e, lost in the stripped-down 1940 film, emerges in this version, the most faithful to date. Jennifer Ehle stars as Elizabeth, and Colin Firth plays Darcy; the two are particularly expressive, wordlessly conveying complex, shifting emotions and capable of dark wit. This version spends more time on the parallel romance of Jane and Bingley, played by Susannah Harker and Crispin Bonham-Carter. The period is captured magnificently, with authentic dances, music, costumes, manners, and scenery. Filmed on location in the Derbyshire countryside and featuring a mansion reliably resembling Pemberley, this three-part adaptation delivers a near-perfect picture of Jane Austen’s world and society.
LITERATURE
Rudyard Kipling’s short story “The Janeites,” published in its final form in 1926, describes the experiences of the shell-shocked veteran Humberstall, who recalls his induction into a secret Jane Austen society while in the trenches in France during World War I. The world of card games and dances described by Austen represents to these soldiers—who are scarcely aware of the tone or even the plot of the novels—the imperiled English civilization for which they are fighting.
Real-life Janeites have populated the world of letters since the publication of Austen’s novels. The brilliant novelist Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is preeminent among later writers who explored nuances of personality as their characters played out their roles in society. At the end of the twentieth century, several novels imitating Austen’s were published, though reviewers and critics generally dismiss these books, which are written to satisfy the appetite among Austen’s more ardent worshipers for anything relating to her and her work. Among these fictions are sequels to Pride and Prejudice by Emma Tennant (Pemberley) and Julia Barrett (Presumption: An Entertainment), both published in 1993.
Bridget Jones’s Diary, a 1996 novel by Helen Fielding, describes a year in the life of a modern-day Elizabeth Bennet. Like Austen’s heroine, Bridget Jones falls first for a charming scoundrel but ends up with a man she had initially misjudged, who, like Austen’s hero, is spectacularly wealthy, owns a splendid manor house, and is named Darcy. At one point, Bridget watches the BBC/A&E version of Pride and Prejudice and compares her Mr. Darcy to Austen’s. She later tells her boss, a television producer, that they should interview the stars, Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, about their off-screen romance. (The film version of Bridget Jones’s Diary, directed by Sharon Maguire, also features Colin Firth, this time in the role of Bridget’s Darcy.) In Fielding’s novelistic sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2000), Bridget does the interview with Firth in Italy and cannot suppress the urge to ask him about his sexy role in the TV miniseries.
Comments & Questions
In this section, we aim to provide the reader with an array of perspectives on the text, as well as questions that challenge those perspectives. The commentary has been culled from sources as diverse as reviews contemporaneous with the work, letters written by the author, literary criticism of later generations, and appreciations written throughout history. Following the commentary, a series of questions seeks to filter Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice through a variety of points of view and bring about a richer understanding of this enduring work
COMMENTS
WALTER ALLEN
More can be learnt from Miss Austen about the nature of the novel than from almost any other writer.
—from The English Novel (1954)
JANE AUSTEN
What should I do with your strong, manly, spirited sketches, full of variety and glow? How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour?
—from a letter to her nephew James Edward Austen (December 16, 1816)
E. M. FORSTER
Scott misunderstood it when he congratulated her for painting on a square of ivory. She is a miniaturist, but never two-dimensional. All her characters are round, or capable of rotundity.
—from Aspects of the Novel (1927)
SIR WALTER SCOTT
Also read again, and for the third time at least, Miss Austen’s very finely written novel of Pride and Prejudice. That young lady had a talent for describing the involvement and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going, but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me. What a pity such a gifted creature died so early!
—from his journal (March 14, 1826)
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
Miss Austen was surely a great novelist. What she did, she did perfectly. Her work, as far as it goes, is faultness. She wrote of the times in which she lived, of the class of people with which she associated, and in the language which was usual to her as an educated lady. Of romance,—what we generally mean when we speak of romance—she had no tinge. Heroes and heroines with wonderful adventures there are none in her novels. Of great criminals and hidden crimes she tells us nothing. But she places us in a circle of gentlemen and ladies, and charms us while she tells us with an unconscious accuracy how men should act to women, and women act to men. It is not that her people are all good;—and, certainly, they are not all wise. The faults of some are the anvils on which the virtues of others are hammered till they are bright as steel. In the comedy of folly I know no novelist who has beaten her. The letters of Mr. Collins, a clergyman in Pride and Prejudice, would move laughter in a low-church archbishop.
—from a lecture (1870)
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
Nothing very much happens in her books, and yet, when you come to the bottom of a page, you eagerly turn it to learn what will happen next. Nothing very much does and again you eagerly turn the page. The novelist who has the power to achieve this has the most precious gift a novelist can possess.
—from Ten Novels and Their Authors (1955)
CHARLOTTE BRONTË
I had not seen Pride and Prejudice till I had read that sentence of yours, and then I got the book. And what did I find? An accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a commonplace face; a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but no glance of a bright vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses. These observations will probably irritate you, but I shall run the risk.
—from a letter to George Lewes (January 12, 1848)
MARK TWAIN
Jane Austen’s books, too, are absent from this library. Just that one omission alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it.
—from Following the Equator (1897)
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
I am at a loss to understand why people hold Miss Austen’s novels at so high a rate, which seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in their wretched conventions of English society, without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world. Never was life so pinched and narrow. . . . Suicide is more respectable.
—from his Journal (1861)
QUESTIONS
1. Much is said concerning the subtlety and refinement of Austen’s writing. What techniques does she employ to achieve this delicacy and minuteness? Is “mininaturism” an accurate description of her style?
2. Would Austen’s meticulous style be as effective if she were to write in forms other than the novel—for example, the short story? Are her abilities—for example, her gift for dialog—convertible to playwriting?
3. Would you like Pride and Prejudice more if Austen’s satire of the social milieu, of class distinctions, of her characters’ pride and prejudice, was more savage?
4. Is Emerson’s complaint that “never was life so pinched and narrow” justified?
5. What is the source of this novel’s immense and enduring popularity?
For Further Reading
BIOGRAPHIES
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Cecil, Lord David. A Portrait of Jane Austen. London: Constable, 1978.
Fergus, Jan. Jane Austen: A Literary Life. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.
Honan, Park. Jane Austen: Her Life. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987.
Le Faye, Deirdre, ed. Jane Austen’s Letters. Third edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Tomalin, Claire. Jane Austen: A Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
CRITICAL STUDIES
Brown, Julia Prewitt. Jane Austen’s Novels: Social Change and Literary Form. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979.
Butler, Marilyn. Jane Austen and the War of Ideas. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
Copeland, Edward, and Juliet McMaster, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Duckworth, Alistair M. The Improvement of the Estate: A Study of Jane Austen’s Novels. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971.
Grey, J. David, ed. The Jane Austen Companion. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
Johnson, Claudia L. Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
