English Faculty Publications
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2005
Publication Source
New Windows on a Woman's World: Essays for Jocelyn Harris
Abstract
In Jane Austen’s Art of Memory and other works, Jocelyn Harris has demonstrated the importance of Austen’s literary contexts for understanding and appreciating Austen’s art. One context for understanding Pride and Prejudice is the conduct book it mentions by name, James Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women. Mr. Collins chooses it to read aloud to the Bennet girls, and when Lydia interrupts him, he responds: “I have often observed how little young ladies are interested by books of a serious stamp, though written solely for their benefit.” I would argue that reading Pride and Prejudice next to Fordyce’s Sermons reveals that Austen was not only “interested” in this text, but actively engaged with its proscriptions. Mr. Collins’s statement, then, becomes ironic, hinting at Austen’s playful response to this “serious” book. While critics have examined Austen’s works in light of the conduct literature of the period, they argue either that Austen falls in line with conduct books or that she completely rejects their advice. However, reading these two texts together illuminates a more complex relationship between Austen and the prevailing ideology of her time.
Inclusive pages
129-137
ISBN/ISSN
1-877139-89-0
Document Version
Published Version
Copyright
Copyright © 2005, Otago University Press
Publisher
University of Otago Press
Volume
2
Place of Publication
Dunedin, New Zealand
Keywords
Austen, etiquette, Victorian era
eCommons Citation
Vorachek, Laura, "Intertextuality and Ideology: Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' and James Fordyce's 'Sermons to Young Women'" (2005). English Faculty Publications. 1.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/eng_fac_pub/1
Comments
Included in repository with the permission of the publisher, Otago University Press, New Zealand.
Permission documentation is on file.