“I Cannot Comprehend The Neglect of a Family Library in Such Days as These.”

History in Jane Austen’s Literature

Abstract

This article proposes to analyze the historical references present in the novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) based on an excerpt from Mr. Darcy’s speech in chapter 8 regarding family libraries. To this end, an introduction will first be presented regarding Jane Austen’s relationship with the historical, political, and economic issues of her country and her period, in order to deconstruct the image of an apolitical author, indifferent to these themes, which was propagated especially by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh in the biography A Memoir of Jane Austen (1870), and an example of how a historical perspective can modify our understanding of the novel Persuasion. Following this, the article moves on to the analysis of Mr. Darcy’s speech based on three main issues: first, the context of the Napoleonic Wars; second, the rise of the capitalist bourgeoisie with the Industrial Revolution and the prejudice of the aristocratic class against people in trade; third, the emergence of circulating libraries and a new form of reading that contrasts with the family libraries advocated by Darcy. In conclusion, this article suggests that the complexity of Austen’s work emerges more strongly when interpretations that focus on general and transversal themes, which transcend her historical period, are confronted with analyses of details and references specific to her context.