Pride and Prejudice - Background of the Text

Jane Austen

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• Lived from 1775 to 1817 during the Georgian Era.
• She was educated at a boarding school in Reading.
• She is well known for the following 6 of her novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion.
• Her books were published anonymously during her lifetime because writing novels at this time was deemed unfeminine.

The Georgian Era

• The Georgian Era in Britain spans from 1714 to 1830.
• This period marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and a shift towards Romanticism in art and literature.
• During this time, the ideas of class, wealth, and reputation were very important in society.
• Wealth was marked by land ownership during this period.
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• Austen discusses these ideas in Pride and Prejudice, emphasising the lack of connection between status and internal merit (the goodness of a person).

The Georgian Era cont.d

• In Pride and Prejudice, the Bennets are, like Jane Austen herself, members of an educated upper middle class known as the “gentry” or the “landed gentry.”
• The gentry were considered socially eligible to mix with the landowning class, but were still far below them in terms of status.
• Gentry owned less than 1,000 acres of land, leased to tenants or oversaw the farming directly and typically lived in the country year-round, visiting London only to take care of occasional legal matters.
• During this era, land was passed down to the eldest son when the owner passed away. When there is no son, as with the Bennets, the land is passed to the closest male relative.