Jane Austen's Pride and PrejudiceHarold Bloom If the authentic test for a great novel is rereading, and the joys of yet further rereadings, then Pride and Prejudice can rival any novel ever written. Though Jane Austen, unlike Shakespeare, practices an art of rigorous exclusion, she seems to me finally the most Shakespearean novelist in the language. When Shakespeare wishes to, he can make all his personages, major and minor, speak in voices entirely their own, self-consistent and utterly different from one another. Since voice in both writers is an image of personality and also of character, the reader of Austen encounters an astonishing variety of selves in her socially confined world. Though that world is essentially a secularized culture, the moral vision dominating it remains that of the Protestant sensibility. Austen's heroines waver in one judgment or another, but they hold fast to the right of private judgment as the self's fortress. What they call "affection" we term "love," of the enduring rather than the Romantic variety, and when they judge a man to be "amiable," it is akin to whatever superlative each of us may favor for an admirable, human person. Where they may differ from us, but more in degree than in kind, is in their profound reliance upon the soul's exchanges of mutual esteem with other souls. In Pride and Prejudice and Emma in particular, your accuracy in estimating the nature and value of another soul is intimately allied to the legitimacy of your self-esteem, your valid pride. - Introduction. |
Contents
Introduction | 7 |
Biographical Sketch | 10 |
The Story Behind the Story | 13 |
List of Characters | 17 |
Summary and Analysis | 22 |
Critical Views | 59 |
STUART TAVE ON AFFECTION | 62 |
SANDRA M GILBERT AND SUSAN GUBARON WOMEN IN AUSTEN | 63 |
JULIET MCMASTER ON MR BENNET AND ELIZABETH BENNET | 78 |
ALLISON THOMPSON ON DANCING AND BALLS IN AUSTENS TIME | 84 |
H ELIZABETH ELLINGTON ON LANDSCAPE AND THE FILMING | 89 |
DONALD GRAY ON MONEY | 98 |
EFRAHT MARGULIET ON ELIZABETHS PETTICOAT | 102 |
Works by Jane Austen | 106 |
Annotated Bibliography | 107 |
Contributors | 112 |
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Common terms and phrases
affection appearance arrival asks attention beautiful becomes begins behavior believes Bennet Bingley’s chapter character Charlotte Chawton claims clear Collins connections considered continues conversation couple Criticism dance Darcy Darcy’s daughter discuss edition Elizabeth engagement English explains fact fashion father feelings finally finds Gardiner girls give goes happiness immediately income indicates interest invites Jane Austen Jane’s join kind Lady Catherine landscape language later leaves less letter lively London Longbourn look Lucas Lydia manners marriage married Mary means Miss Bingley mother Netherfield never Notes novel observes offer opening particularly Pemberley pleased pleasure Press Pride and Prejudice proposal published reader realizes received refuses relationship returns says scene seems sense Sensibility sister social soon story surprised talk tells University walk Wickham wife wishes woman women wonders writing York