The rise of the novel as a literary form & the place of Jane Austen

1. The rise of the novel as a literary form & the place of Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice

2. The rise & importance of the novel • Austen family were enthusiastic readers of novels and ‘not ashamed of being so’ (letter 1798) • The novel was a comparatively new form of literature, poetry and drama since the Greeks whereas British novel is 18th century. • The novel has always been a social form in two special senses: it has concerned itself more closely than any other literary form with social problems, manners and organization; and (at least in England) it has been the product of one particular class – the middle class. Typically medieval high romance belonged to the aristocracy, the ballad to the folk. • Most people agree that that the first ‘real’ novelist was Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe (1719), & Moll Flanders (1722) • Best known C18th novelists are Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Lawrence Sterne. • Dr Samuel Johnson, Austen’s favourite moralist. He championed reason, believing that thinking reasonably meant thinking morally as opposed to filling one’s mind with illusions.

3. influences • Shakespeare often read/acted during by Austen family, no direct allusions in P&P to Shakespeare but she and Shakespeare are viewed as England’s two greatest literary exports. • Samuel Richardson, who wrote young Austen’s favourite novel The History of Sir Charles Gradison (1759) Pamela, Clarissa • Pamela or Virtue Rewarded (1740) a servant girl fights off the advances, including attempted rape of her master who cannot believe that someone of her servant rank would consider her virginity so important, until he reads her letters and discovers her absolute sincerity, undergoes an astonishing moral conversion and proposes marriage. • Pamela may have been the first English ‘novel of character’ as opposed to ‘novel of incident’ Richardson’s novels showed Austen that writing about feelings and experiences of a young woman could be the stuff of novels • Fanny Burney in Cecilia (1782), Camilla (1796), Evelina (1778) show intelligent young women entering the world of society.

4. ‘the result of pride and prejudice’ • Jane Austen took the title from Fanny Burney who wrote of her novel Cecilia (1782) ‘The whole unfortunate business’ was ‘the result of Pride and Prejudice’. Mr Darcey’s excessive pride, his first proposal to Elizabeth, and Lady Catherine’s interview with her at Longbourn, were all based on incidents in Cecilia. All of Burney’s novels explore the lives of English aristocrats, and satirize their social pretensions and personal foibles, with an eye to larger questions such as the politics of female identity. • P&P was originally to be called “First Impressions”

5. Austen’s place in English Literature • Austen's works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the eighteenth century and are part of the transition to nineteenth-century realism. Austen's plots, although fundamentally comic, highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security. Like those of Samuel Johnson, one of the strongest influences on her writing, her works are concerned with moral issues.

6. Austen’s value system 1/3 • Austen is neither the 19th Century conservative or radical feminist, she is however a moderate feminist who is progressive in examining the failures of a patriarchy landed gentry. • Questions moral and political practices of autocracy and places her allegiance with the middle classes – those who earn their living eg. Her portrayal of Lady Catherine de Bourgh – snob, insensitive, selfish, someone who can’t perceive beyond class. • She’s critical of moral hypocrisy and greed eg. Mr. Collins – sycophant, foolish, self-serving eg. Mr. Phillips, lawyer, greedy and irresponsible. • Frames military and naval officers courageously But not the militia / standing army e.g. Wickham • Celebrates virtue of identity, thrift, benevolence, responsibility and generosity eg. Gardiner.

7. Austen’s value system 2/3 • She endorses Woolstonecraft’s argument that the master – slave relationship embedded in English class system and gender roles damage both master and slaves and that women’s mind can benefit from education. • Austen places huge value in the importance of linguistic experience, consciousness (almost to exclusion of bodily experience) characters do hunt, walk dance but all important transactions take place through language eg. Darcy’s second proposal is transformed into a completely linguistic experience. • eg. “though she could not look, she could listen, and he told of feelings which… made his affection every moment more valuable. • Belief in woman’s capacity for intellectual and moral growth • Desirability of egalitarian marriages of rational love and mutual esteem.

8. Austen’s value system 3/3 • Her heroines are not women of passionate sensibility but women of sense. • Intimate physical contacts are minimalised, eyes meet, occasionally hands, but not bodies. We see dresses not bodies, public greetings not private embrace. Dancing does provide a rare chance for conversation but is more concerned with propriety of conduct than any physical experience. • Her novels tell the stories of female education in which an intelligent girl learns to perceive the world more accurately, understand more fully ethical complexity of human nature and society: always an emphasis on mental possesses rather than physical exchanges • eg. Elizabeth Bennet must overcome proud confidence in own ability to distinguish simple and intricate human characters and her prejudiced and inaccurate assessment of Mr. Darcy. Their marriage exemplifies Wollstonecraft's ideal marriage based on rational love, mutual understanding and respect.