Gossip

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer taking up the subject of Jane Austen must allude to the first sentence of Pride and Prejudice. Ok, that's done (if awkwardly) and I can move on. I can't help but wonder if Austen's style, and the fact that there have been so many who have written so well on Austen is a stumbling block--like the perceived necessity of misquoting the first line of Pride and Prejudice--in writing about Austen. I know it has been for me! Since beginning to teach this class  I have hardly written a word on this blog about Austen. And yet, as I discover in class every day, there is still so much to say . . . .

In reading the first few chapters this time around, I found my self thinking about gossip. At the beginning of Chapter 3 the Bennet girls and their mother are wondering about Mr. Bingley. But this soon transforms into the whole community wondering and gossiping about the new arrivals. Notice how many times "report," "intelligence," and "hearing" or "heard" show up through here. The Bennet ladies "accept second han-hand intelligence" about Mr. Bingley from Lady Lucas's "report." Mr. Bingley "has heard much" about the Bennet girls." Everyone is alarmed by a "report" that Mr. Bingley will bring twelve ladies to the ball, but later they "hear" that only his sisters will accompany him. During the ball a "report" enters "general circulation" about Mr. Darcy's wealth.

While we often think about how Austen creates the characters of Elizabeth and Darcy--and how we follow Elizabeth's thoughts in particular--when we think about this novel, before we ever find out any thing specific about either of them the voice of the community is well established. Who gives these reports? Who circulates this information? We only know in a few cases.  Like the "truth universally acknowledged" some information seems to float through this book without any real source.

This raises many questions: Is the community more important for Austen than her main characters? To what extent are her readers part of this community? Is she making the reader part of the community by giving us this seemingly free-floating information? So many Austen readers note with admiration that she creates a little world in which we live as we read her novels. The creation of this world has, in part, to do with creating this community voice that makes us feel like we, too, live in Meryton. Does gossip make us feel like we belong? That raises so many more questions--am I the only one thinking about Facebook right now?