Pride-and-Prejudice

—from a letter to George Lewes (January 12, 1848)
MARK TWAIN
Jane Austen’s books, too, are absent from this library. Just that one omission
alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in
it.
—from Following the Equator (1897)
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
I am at a loss to understand why people hold Miss Austen’s novels at so high
a rate, which seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention,
imprisoned in their wretched conventions of English society, without genius,
wit, or knowledge of the world. Never was life so pinched and narrow… .
Suicide is more respectable.
—from his Journal (1861)
QUESTIONS
1. Much is said concerning the subtlety and refinement of Austen’s
writing. What techniques does she employ to achieve this delicacy and
minuteness? Is “mininaturism” an accurate description of her style?
2. Would Austen’s meticulous style be as effective if she were to write in
forms other than the novel—for example, the short story? Are her
abilities—for example, her gift for dialog—convertible to playwriting?
3. Would you like Pride and Prejudice more if Austen’s satire of the
social milieu, of class distinctions, of her characters’ pride and prejudice,
was more savage?
4. Is Emerson’s complaint that “never was life so pinched and narrow”
justified?
5. What is the source of this novel’s immense and enduring popularity?