Jane Austen [ Art and Literature ]
… Sensibility (1811) was ‘By a Lady’ – Austen engaged in a distanced form of literary sociability; her name appears in the subscription list for Frances Burney’s novel Camilla (1796), and her authorial persona in Northanger Abbey (1817) appeals … courtship. Public assemblies, like the opening ball at Meryton in Pride and Prejudice (1813), were organised by subscription and offered opportunities for interaction between social ranks if the local landowner, or a visiting one …
Courtship | Fiction | Gender | Public sphere
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