The 18th century had been the Age of Enlightenment, with Voltaire and David Hume and Adam Smith making sense of life in a super-scientific, man-centered, non-religious way. At the turn of the century, the old debate between rationality and emotions was heating up again. In reality, the novel deals with plenty of its own deep thoughts and serious subjects. It kind of ruins the mood, right? But that's exactly what most people expected from books-a little non-fiction mixed in with your fiction, just enough so you can say, "Yeah, I know, it's a novel-but I'm reading it for the articles." Darcy's proposal, trying to find out what Elizabeth Bennet says, and all of a sudden the narrator starts in on a long essay about contemporary literature. How do we know she's kidding around? Well, just imagine: you're flipping pages frantically during Mr. (Letter to Cassandra Austen, February 4, 1813) is rather too light & bright & sparkling -it wants shade -it wants to be stretched out here & there with a long Chapter about something unconnected with the story an Essay on Writing, a critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Bonaparte -or anything that would form a contrast & bring the reader with increased delight to the playfulness & Epigrammatism of the general stile.
Austen made fun of those expectations in a letter she wrote to her sister: Especially when your novel, like Austen's, was essentially about marrying off a bunch of sisters. Not only was it a big deal for women to be authors, but it was also kind of a foregone conclusion that everyone would think that their novels were automatically kind of silly and chick-lit -you know, not like man-novels, what with their deep thoughts and serious subjects. (Imagine how those people would feel about sex bloggers.) Oh, how shocking and taboo! Just one step away from prostitution! (We're not even joking about that.) Because of all that, the novel came out anonymously, as had her book Sense and Sensibility only a year earlier. When Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudicein 1813, people were still getting used to the idea that women would do something so totally immodest and exhibitionist as to actually have strangers reading something she wrote for money. Want more deets? We've also got a complete Online Course about Pride and Prejudice, with three weeks worth of readings and activities to make sure you know your stuff.
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