Is Jane Austen “A Slip of a Girl”?
Jane Austen and the Contrarian, H.W. Garrod(An abridged version)
Michiko SOYA
Jane Austen has been in vogue for sometime.

Austen's fiction in the academic world, as

Critics have always been interested inAusten,but

recently

shehas

well as movies, television dramas, and eventhe first film biography, called Becoming

becomesomething of a “saleable” commodity as well.

Jane (Director:

She was also popular in the 1920s to 1930s,

Hathaway as Jane Austen and James

when

R.W.

McAvoy as Tom Lefroy; 2007) which is a

Chapman and H.W. Garrod argued very

totally fictitious Harlequin romance based ondramatically about the author.

Becoming Jane Austen: A Life by Jon Spence,

the

two

Oxfordscholars,

The ensuingcontentions

betweenthe

Janeiteanti-Janeite

factions

that

this

and

Julian Jarrold, with Annein which he emphasizes the effect of Austen’s

debatefirst brief romance with Tom Lefroy.

generated caused a chasm reminiscent ofHenry James, who ushered in another era

conversations between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet,of Austen mania, criticized the “distinctively

creating an effect similar to le plaisir de texte.

mechanicalDue to space limitations, I will focus here

especially the “body of publishers” that was

mainly on Garrod's arguments.

commercializing Austen into a “saleable”
item (65).

In this paper I will be examining the main

andoverdonereactions,”

That was in 1905. What would

points in Garrod's anti-Janeite critique toJames say now, just a little more thandetermine just how closely his style in “Janeone-hundred years later, when Austen has

Austen:become a perennial sales item?

Depreciation”(hereafter,“Depreciation”) resembles the initial sectionof Austen's text, Pride and Prejudice.

“Malice” in Garrod's “Depreciation”
To borrow Garrod's phrase, there was also

“We cannot live without“a somewhat notable boom in Miss Austen” in

Pride and Prejudice”?

the 1920s-1930s.

Mirror(1

March2007),

ina

Garrod was reacting notagainst the boom of commercialization of

According to the British newspaper, the“Austen,” but to her popularity, by a process

surveyhe himself calls “depreciation” of Austen.

commemorating the tenth anniversary ofWorld Book Day, Jane Austen's Pride and“There is a time to be born and a time toPrejudice was top of the list as “the book thedie, and a time to be middle-aged and readnation cannot live without.”

Miss Austen.”

These are the beginning linesof Garrod's essay, in which he associates

Perhaps because of the numbers of people
who “can't live without” Pride and Prejudice,

Austenashrewdthere have been innumerable works based on

juxtaposition of age and Austen.

In his－1－

withmiddleageinessay, Garrod professes to being a contrarian,

belittles what he calls her lack of literary

which is unmistakable even in the title:

knowledge and education(29).

“Depreciation.”

Garrod's “prejudice” is palpable.

He begins the essay with

It is

the forcible merging of middle age—a time ofthis “malice” on Garrod's part that has been

mentalthe target of criticism since “Depreciation”

andphysicalinfirmity—that

inevitable twilight in one's life, and thewas published.

offenderAusten.

whether his malice is, as he himself states,“Depreciation” is based on a lecture Garrod

the “best part”(21) of “Depreciation,” it isgave at the Royal Society of Literature of theobvious that his malice is intentional, even if

United1928.

constituting merely a “part” of his paper.

According to the notes he appended later to

The “pride” and “prejudice” he uses in

the paper, he formulated his presentation in“Depreciation,”

an offhand manner for an informal occasion.

comprises the essence of Pride and Prejudice

Though he proclaims his innocence, his

itself.

ofhis

Kingdomsensibilities,

on

May

23,

Apart from the question of

as

well

as

his

malice,malice can be detected throughout the paper:“A young woman of wit and spirit
It is not that [a doctoral thesis]; nor yet
is it all malice.

—as hard as nails”

The malice is (if I may

Elizabeth is hard as nails, has “wit andsay so) the best part of it but the otherspirit”

parts convey matter which I cannot

flirt”(27).Ɇthis is, Chapman’s conjecture as tobut think valuable, when there are so

why Garrod admires only Elizabeth.

many

speaking

detailed analysis of the “hard as nails”

lightly about Miss Austen is as bad as

personality of Elizabeth reveals the same

“speaking against the Prayer Book.”

attribute in common with Mr. Bennet and(21)

Garrod as well.

persons

to

whom

and

is

“an

accomplished
And aLet's look in more detail at

how Elizabeth came to be “hard as nails” to
If there were “so many persons” whobegin with.i

worshipped Austen as they would “the Prayer

Pride and Prejudice could be called aBook,” as Garrod implies, perhaps there was

Bildungsroman in the sense that it is thesome validity in Garrod's statement.

story of a protagonist's self-disillusionment

On the other hand, Garrod's intenseand spiritual growth, but the distress andantipathy can also be interpreted ironicallydespair caused by the young Elizabeth's

as his very own tale of “Pride and Prejudice.”earnestness toward life may have been

His pride permeates the piece.

His own

perhaps far offset by something even she

attitude is clear from the fact that he begins

herself does not recognize. Though not quite

his essay with a rejection of the notion of aself-deception,“great woman”(22).

intrinsic

responsereflects

againstrealitythat“universally acknowledged” to all (but tooverrides her own self-awareness.

The

Garrod and a few others, perhaps) as a “greatmeans for response anticipate her own

woman,” while Garrod himself viciously

consciousness.

Austen was actually

－2－

her

defensean

The innate genius for sharp

languagethat

distinguishes

Collins.

ElizabethHeadmirably

repulsesthewhenever she encounters crises in life serves

marriage proposal of the plebeian Collins to

as a weapon.

save Elizabeth from marital catastrophe(111-12).

This weapon isn't merely defensive, but is

If we follow Northrop Frye's formula forat times quite effective for assault as well,the

comedy, (“the mythos of spring” 163-66) the

Elizabeth's acerbicrole of the strong father who obstructs the

linguistic posturing takes in the universe

protagonist is here unilaterally entrusted towith irony and humour, not only lending

Mrs. Bennet, while Mr. Bennet frees theitself to acute discernment of the events

youth from the fetters of convention.

around her but also even to reversals.

moving scene, and Mr. Bennet's rhetoric isthoughcontributing

greatlyprotagonist's charm.

to

The

It is aimpression of vitality and energy that

dramatically successful.

Elizabeth exudes is inherent in this rather

Mr. Bennet is, the further away he finds his

demonstrative use of language.

gaze from where it should be, and the more

Austen's “two inches of ivory” (Letters

But the more aloof

difficult it is to recover.

Even when his469) can at any moment be transformed into

beloved daughter is in danger, Mr. Bennet“an elephant's tusk” (Ghent 100).

can't

This

help

blurting

out

such

snide

small chip of ivory has the latent capacity forcommentary.

The reader notices over time

becoming an “elephant's tusk” whenever

his rather perverse obstinacy in taking every

necessary, and consists mainly of this kind ofopportunity to demonstrate his quick wit,

linguistic posturing.

whether appropriate or not.

In fact, hisdaughter's

providesimpendingdoomaperfect venue for displaying his causticity.

“Beneficent Effect of a Phrase”
What is well to keep in mind is that theIt seems there are other characters

sharp-tongued nature of Elizabeth at times

besides Barthes's friend, X, who benefit fromechoes that of another character, Mr. Bennet.

effet bienfaisant d'une phrase (the beneficent

Irony

effect of a phrase).

often

comes

into

play

through

Barthes explains:

exchanged glances between the protagonist
and her father.

The acute powers of

X tells me that one day he decided “toobservation

cleverness

rhetoric

exonerate his life from his unhappy

indicate that this second daughter of the

loves,” and that this phrase seemed so

Bennet family, with her unique character,splendidtohim

has inherited her father's genes.

managedtocompensate

and

of

that

it

almostforthe

The value of Mr. Bennet lies mainly in his

failures which had provoked it; he thenbeing a conspirator in irony with Elizabeth.

determined (and determined me) to

As a father he is simply an eccentric,

take more advantage of this reservoir

irresponsible bystander who puts his ownof irony in all (aesthetic) language.

interests first.

(Barthes 147)

Infrequently, however, heplays the fatherly role to the hilt.
will give one example:

Here Ithe expulsion of

Saddled in life with a foolish wife,

－3－

Mr.

Austen, such as her technique of using later
Bennetpossibly

compensatesforstatements by Elizabeth and Mr. Bennet tohis

misfortune by on occasion enjoying theoverturn earlier ones.

“beneficent

Garrod’s criticism knowing no bounds, as is

effectofaphrase.”His

This results inevident in the following:

realization of his ability and his successes
seem to whet his appetite for yet more
displays of such banter.

I am happy with none save Elizabeth

Mr. Bennet causes

many a reversal for other Austen caricatures

Bennet.

through clever turns of phrase, a process thatpromise in which we may one day meetin turn creates new caricatures even ofsuch young women as Fanny Price,himself.

protagonist,

Anne Elliot, Elinor Dashwood; but it

Elizabeth, evinces a youthful vitality thatwill be a land flowing with milk andsupersedes her father's middle-aged tactic ofwater. (37)

Ultimately,theI daresay there is a land of

surviving by overcoming the setbacks of life
As stated above, Garrod gives credit towith the self-proclaimed credo, “For what do
we live, but to make sport for our neighbours,

Elizabeth only as a protagonist.

Chapman,and laugh at them in our turn? ” (364), or to

however,statement,

borrow Darcy’s phrase:

cutting it down with one deft stroke by“a person whose

first object in life is a joke” (57).

dismisses

Garrod's

stating that Garrod summarily censures as

Thoughultimately they branch off, the similarity of

unrealistic

any

the model that both Elizabeth and her father

personally like (29-30).

adopt is clear.

By focusing on the sharptrue. Nevertheless, it is also true that we, on

rhetoric of Mr. Bennet as a middle-aged man,the other hand, feel like reading Garrod’s

we begin to notice that other middle-aged

rhetoric. Garrod's parody of Austen's fictionalman, Austen's severest critic, H.W. Garrod,

promised

has himself come to resemble the very

depreciates the proverbial “milk and honey”

characters whose author he so despises.

into merely milk and water, implying that

Remarkably, both Mr. Bennet and Garrod

Austen's characters cannot live except income to share the common quality of thesuch an utterly insipid and banal land. The“beneficent effect of a phrase.”

relocation to this trite, worn “heavenly

landcharacter

is

so

he

does

not

This certainly isacerbicthat

heresidence” of Austen's characters seems
Garrod's Rhetoric

apropos (at least to Garrod), perhaps thusachieving his purpose.

What Garrod writes about Austen is

Garrod's famous line from his essay on

generally all negative criticism (or perhaps
Looking

Austen also seems a great boon that he hasat the consistency he displays, it seems thatderived from his dislike of Austen, a boon to

Garrod is still safely outside the sphere ofwhich he almost appears grateful.

“senility”

oddly

diatribe might be more accurate).

hesodeplores.

Yet

that

enough,his

openingparagraphthat

Pride andconsistency also results in Garrod himself

somehow

repeating subconsciously certain aspects ofPrejudice. Let's compare the two.

－4－

resemblesAndofDante's“middleoflife.”In Garrod’s

Advent of middle age:

“Depreciation,” the range between living andGarrod's introduction

dying becomes suddenly focused on his
insertion of the rather indecorous, caricatural,

There is a time to be born and a time togrievous point in life called “middle age.”die, and a time to be middle-aged and

The reader barely has time to digest thisread Miss Austen.

Some men areconcept before being confronted with an

born

some

association with “Austen.”

middle-aged,

achieve

As mentioned

middle age of their proper preference,

above, Garrod is unaccustomed to using theothers have it thrust upon them.

adjective

Ever so many years ago I became

implying that Austen is insignificant.

middle-aged all of a sudden.

It is idle

sonorous style of Garrod’s introduction,

now, when already I have to answer

beginning with the phrase from Ecclesiastes,

the graver charge of senility, to protest

is deflated by the sudden insertion of “middle

that I accepted middle age (and Missage,” which is then reduced irrecoverably byAusten) very reluctantly. (21)the further addition of a trifle, “Austen,” anentityof“great”

notodescribe

consequence.

“woman,”

Isn’t

The

this

In “Depreciation,” Garrod begins his

anticlimax reminiscent of something else?

introduction with the pithy phrase from

It is the very anticlimax in which trifling

Ecclesiastes 3:2, “there is a time to be born,

vulgar worldly wisdom disarms Austen's

and a time to die.”“truth.”To the list of items

mentioned in Ecclesiastes he adds his own:“a time to be middle aged.”

Of course, the scale is not as great, but the

Surely, Garrod

same divisive wedge is evident in Garrod’s

inserts this rather frivolous addition because

introduction, with its similar anticlimax, asof the impact of that benchmark on his own

what we see in that of Pride and Prejudice.

life.

His expression of “middle age” is in

If we look at the latter from the perspective of

sharp contrast, for example, to that of Dantethe former, we see a certain conflation.

quoted by Barthes—“Nel mezzo del camin diThough faint, there is a hint of Garrod's

nostra vita . . .” (Rustle 284)—the middle of“middle age” to be detected in Austen's text.

our life, that conjures up the majesty of thegift of life. It is true that both of them

Penetration of “middle age”:

experienced “middle age.” Garrod may have

Introduction to Pride and Prejudicesensed,ratherthan

havingknown

Even if we cannot state categorically that

intellectually, that he was in “the last

Mr. Bennet's posturing forms the structure ofcompartment” (Rustle 285), that is, “laPride and Prejudice, as we can see from thedernière case”(“Longtemps,” Oeuvres 3.834)

language of both Mr. Bennet and Elizabeth,of life, as so aptly put by Barthes.

it is at least certain that they permeate thewarp and woof of the textual world of the

So far all I can safely say is that there is agreat disparity between the middle age

novel.

referred to in Garrod's “Depreciation” andmiddle-aged man in a sense even tends－5－

The form of the posturing of thistoward the style already apparent in therole as “thief.”

introduction of Pride and Prejudice.

sense that he “steals” the language.

Mr. Bennet is a thief in the

It is a truth universally acknowledged,

When no known language is available

that a single man in possession of ato you, you must determine to steal agood fortune, must be in want of a wife.

languageɆas men used to steal a loaf

However little known the feelings orof bread. (All thoseɆlegionɆwho areviews of such a man maybe on his firstoutside Power are obliged to steal

entering a neighborhood, this truth islanguage.) (Barthes, Barthes 167)

so well fixed in the minds of thesurrounding

families,

that

he

is

He is appropriate as an Austen creation inconsidered as the rightful property ofthat he uses secretive or even miscreantsome one or other of their daughters.

behavior to set his adversary off balance(3)verbally.

Just as he is causing a reversal for

his opponent, he himself begins to come into
It is significant that the two sentences

his own as a character (Soya, “Rhetoric” 238).

above are not just the viewpoint expressed in

Elizabeth's aforementioned “evil intent” (if it

Pride and Prejudice, but constitute a literary

exists), is another label for this action.

thread throughout all of Austen's works.

Bennet is the most pervasive language thief

These

as

in the work; he jousts with his wife, theaphorisms, are followed by a conversation.

character with a certain authority. Her, not

The conversation is, however, not between

strength, but rather frail, and as Mrs. Bennet

the youthful companions Elizabeth andherself proclaims, “poor nerves” sufficiently

Darcy, but between the middle-aged Mr. andqualify her as a tyrant.

sentences,which

resonate

Mrs. Bennet themselves. Both of them areMr.

The conversation between middle-aged

the dispensable supporting characters.

Andhusband and wife that develops after the

the

that

introduction is the truth underlying theconversationisdirectedbymiddle-aged man, Mr. Bennet.

aphorisms and maxims in the introduction,

Certainly Pride and Prejudice can be seenreflecting the actual situation.

Let's return

as a Cinderella story, but it also contains

to the first sentence to see how it also relates

many elements of the Bildungsroman. Fromto the middle-aged couple.

this perspective, the bulk of Austen's oeuvre,

Of course it should be apparent by now

as Chapman points out, concern young people,

that the sentence that starts with “It is awith middle-aged characters being mere

truth” is the best model of anticlimax.

The

comic relief (33).

phrase,that

Or as Trilling has“universallyacknowledged”

suggested, it is also possible to view Mr.

makes “a truth” even more conspicuous is

Bennet as a second-, or even third-rate man

highlyand a “moral nonentity” (206, 215).

exaggeration.

raisond'etreThesuspicious,

caused

as

it

is

by

If we were to borrow Harald

cowardlyWeinrich's expression, it is the epitome of the

onlooker father, however, actually lies in his“ironie signal” (61), a rhetorical signal offorElizabeth's－6－untruth.

It is quite conceivable that Garrod wasThis boldfaced lie, by breaking

convention, stops being a lie.

greatly

Through theinspiredbyAusten's

humour.

scathing criticism latent in the alignment

Perhaps what prompted Garrod to write hiswith sham in regards to conventional wisdom,“perverse,”

the ironie signal becomes a method in itself

revulsion of Austen, but rather the blood inthat

his humour that was piqued by the author,transcends

mere

Research 175-79).

imitation(Soya,

This ironie signal is“Depreciation”

wasand his desire to express it.

not

his

I say thisAusten's trademark method, having alreadybecause first, we can see the joy he takes inbeen used to great effect from her earlier

hating Austen.

This in itself is accompanied

literary attempts to the conclusion of her

by humour.

What is most important,juvenile, Lady Susan (Soya, “Lady Susan” 6).

however, is that through this process Garrod

The connotation is conflated with thesuddenly becomes one with Elizabeth, who

anticlimax in the introduction of Pride andherself knows that to hate people is to enjoy

Prejudicethem. To confirm Elizabeth’s strategies, weevidenced in the inner world of

the middle-aged Bennets.
Mr.

Bennet'srecognition

witty

of

his

That is, throughverbalization
wife'shave only to remember “the enjoyment of all

and

lack

her original dislike” (35) Elizabeth regains

of

when

she

noticestheBingleysisters'

self-awareness and self-consciousness, thehypocrisy and coldheartedness. Both Austen

semantic nuances behind Mrs. Bennet's

and Garrod are remarkably synchronous indiscourse are reversed.

their scathing rhetoric and in their stanceMr.

Bennet’s

The mechanism ofmachinations

isnearlytowards the characters.

equivalent to that of the aphorisms in the
introduction of Pride and Prejudice.

Thenegative

emotion

of

hate

can

If we

obviously be transformed into a positive

view Mr. Bennet from this perspective andfeeling of pleasure, but this process requires

take into account the merging of his naturaladisposition

manipulation.

towardartlessness

with

his

certainintellectual

distanceandThe golden aphorism, “Thispoignant awareness, we can see that thisworld is a comedy to those that think, a

anticlimax is indeed rooted in middle age.

It

tragedy to those that feel” (31 December

is deeply rooted in soil that allows the novel

1769), which Horace Walpole was fond of

to end as far more than simply the Cinderella

articulating,story of the match between two young

probably what Garrod and Elizabeth have inprotagonists.

common.

comes

to

mind.

This

is

age

Garrod's natural gift of hate becomes apermeates Pride and Prejudice and returning

good stimulus for “Depreciation,” providing

to Garrod's re-reading of the text, we canan excellent opportunity for whetting his

make some new discoveries.

knife-likeAfterlookingathow

middleBefore delving

wit.

This

is

exactly

what

into this subject, however, first I would like

Elizabeth herself proclaims (226).

to discuss another similarity between Austen

also true about Garrod that “one cannot be

and Garrod: humour.

always laughing at a man [or, a “great－7－

And it iswoman”] without now and then stumbling onof Mark Twain. As Trilling points out, Marksomething witty.”

Twain's comments do indeed sound “feral”

Thesuperimpositionof

Garrod(209).

andElizabeth extends to that other middle-agedman, Mr. Bennet, who shares the blood of theI often want to criticize Jane Austen,protagonist

but her books madden me so that I

andserves

as

the

foil

to

can't conceal my frenzy from the

Elizabeth's wit.

reader; and therefore I have to stop
every time I begin.

Garrod's “Last Word”

Every time I read

“Born Middle-Aged” vs. “Ironie signal”

Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her

When he reaches the last line, evenup and beat her over the skull with her

Garrod finally mollifies his poison pen.

He

own shin-bone! (Twain 642)

naturally tries to summarize his assertions
here, dealing the fatal blow to his adversary,

When

Mark

Twain'sLetters

wereattempting to silence her by reducing her topublished in 1917, the last sentence was“a slip of a girl,” reminiscent of the rationaledeleted.

in Barthes's “the last word.”that Brander Matthews published Twain's

It wasn't until three years later

whole comment.

It may be that Garrod's. . . every language combat . . . seeks to

and Twain's abhorrence of Austen was rooted

gain possession of this position; by thein a fear that resembles male panic.

last word. . . . it is the last throw of thefirmly grounded in the male principle, they

dice which counts . . . the victory goesfear control by the female psyche of the world

to the player who captures that little

portrayed in Austen's works, as Trilling

creature whose possession assuresexplains in his The Opposing Self (209).

omnipotence: the last word. (Barthes,

isn't known, of course, if Garrod shared

Discourse 208)

Twain's feelings to the extent of wanting toThoughItdig up Miss Austen.
I will forgo their critical feral repugnance

And Garrod’s “ last word” is as follows:

here and proceed to the expression, a “slip ofAnd yet she has a doctrine of the soul;a girl.”and it is what I hate most about her.

was merely a “slip of a girl,” if this were

Perhaps it is salutary that it should

actually true, she probably would not be sosometimes be put to us coolly that thestimulating to him.
I am reminded here of Carol Shields'strue grandeur of the soul is its good
sense.

Though Garrod claims that Austen

inference on the satirist Jane Austen. Shields

But I do not want it put to me

indicatesby a slip of a girl. (40)thatAustenfirst

becameconversant in the art of satire while still in
Garrod is unconcerned with appearances

her early teens, and mentions her first

hisAusten,readers (her listening public) had a lot of

displaying an animality that resembles that

influence on her works to foster her ainforthright

disgustwith－8－

satirist(29).

re-reading

At the same time, perhaps

Austen truly was a born satirist.

her

he

discoveredAs

something about his own outlook on

Virginia Woolf conjectures, fairies might justlife that made it urgently necessary tohave taken her right out of the cradle at birthdepreciate hers.

to see the world from the heavens (136),

Our reaction to her seems intimately,

creating by default a natural satirist. Ifeven alarmingly, dependent on our

Woolf’s scenario of Jane's birth has any

own history. (1)validity,

Woolf's

speculations(or

And this is typical.

more
Did Austen actually get “under his

strictly speaking, powers of observation)
recall another of Austen's inherent traits,[Garrod’s] skin”?

that of being “born middle-aged.”

Austen, actually “discover something about“Born

middleaged”

isoriginally

his

a

own

Did Garrod, in re-reading

outlookonlife”(whichsoundspoignant phrase thought to have been coined

ominous), and did the effect drive him toduring the Garrod-Chapman debates. By“depreciate hers” ?

using this phrase in “Depreciation,” Garrod

If Bayley’s observation quoted above istacitly ridicules Austen's avid admirers, who

valid, then perhaps the aspect of Austen thatare far too young to be of the age ofshook Garrod's outlook on life was not that“surrender.”Garrod probably wished toAusten was a mere “slip of a girl”—the label

have the title, “born middle aged,” conferredhe had foisted on Austen—but that she wason Chapman, the very person.

genuinely “born middle aged.”

Austen is a“born satirist,” and it is highly probable thatConclusion

she was also “born middle aged.” In the caseof Austen, of course, I use the phrase not as

As we have seen, Garrod and Austen

ridicule, as does Garrod, but because Austen

share not only a similar literary style based

is simply born middle aged; the author ison acerbic humour, but also breathe the same

young and has an innocence and insouciance.

air, and show the same signs of middle age.

And still, she has a power of observation (orIf that is the case, being a descendant inperhaps because of Woolf's fairy whimsy)

variant form of her literary archetype, thethat truly comprehends what it means to be

Garrod project seems most ungrateful.

middle aged as well, regardless of her actualis a contrarian.

age.

but it is perhaps just this excessive repulsion

John Bayley reads some feelings into
Garrod's“Depreciation.”

It may sound paradoxical,

that makes him innocent.

Bayley's

his

responseHe

againstThe extremity ofAustenresembles

greatly Weinrich's “ironie signal.”

interpretation can be summarized as follows:in re-reading Austen's works we discoverD.

H.

Lawrence

also

professesansomething about our own outlook on life.

anti-Janeite view, and is quite open in his

Bayley uses Garrod as a case in point.

indignation.

According to Lawrence's own

admission, his righteous indignation arises
She[Austen]Garrod:Professor

from the sense of the “old maid” Austen

she got under his skin: inbotheredhaving mercilessly destroyed the unity that－9－

derived from the continuous “same bloodstream” of the great English authors, such as

Chapman, R. W. “Jane Austen:

Garrod.” Essays by Divers Hands. ed. Francis

Defoe and Fielding, who were of a better era
(58).

Using

Lawrence's

term,“bloodconnection,” however, seems at the very least

A Reply to Mr.

Younghusband. London: Oxford UP, 1931.
Frye, Northrop.
Jersey:Anatomy of Criticism. 1957. New

Princeton UP, 1965.

to be alive and well as an intermediary

Garrod, H. W. “Jane Austen: A Depreciation.” Essays

between Austen and the twilight years of

by Divers Hands. ed. Laurence Binyon. London:

Garrod.

Oxford UP, 1928.
Ghent, Dorothy Van. The English Novel: Form and*This essay is a translation of a revised

version of a paper I presented at the
symposium of the 2nd annual conference of
the Jane Austen Society of Japan, held at
Konan Women’s University, June 28, 2008.
The earlier and full-length version of thearticle, in Japanese, appeared in Eigo Seinen,
The Rising Generation 䛄ⱥㄒ㟷ᖺ䛅
No.1916-1919 (Kenkyusha, 2008-2009).

Function. New York: Rinehart, 1953.
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London:Mandrake, 1930.

Matthews, Brander. “Mark Twain and the Art ofWriting.” Harper's Monthly Magazine.
1920. New York:For the relationship between Elizabeth’s and Mr.
Bennet’s protestations and of Elizabeth herself, see
my book, Jane Austen Research (173-92), where I
have provided detailed illustrations of these points,
although from a different perspective. In this paper
I have kept such examples to a minimum.

i

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Spence, Jon. Becoming Jane Austen.

London:Hambledon Continuum, 2003.
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Viking, 1950.
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Lambert Schneider, 1974.
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with Sir Horace Mann. ed. W.S. Lewis et al. New

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. ed. R.W.
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Barthes, Roland.

Oxford UP, 1965.

A Lover's Discourse Fragments.

trans. Richard Howard. New York:

Noonday.

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Haven: Yale UP, 1967.
Woolf, Virginia. The Common Reader.

Soya, Michiko. “Jane Austen’s Rhetoric in Sense

and Sensibility” (in Japanese). Studies in_____. Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes. trans.
Richard Howard.

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English Literature. The English Literature

Hill and Wang,

Society of Japan, 1990.

1977.

_____. “Lady Susan:_____. The Rustle of Language. trans. Richard
Howard. New York:

Hill and Wang, 1986.

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Journal Online. JASNA: Jane Austen Society ofNorth America, 2003.
_____. Jane Austen Research—Austen and theLanguage Conspirators (in Japanese). Tokyo:

Bayley, John. “The ‘Irresponsibility’ of Jane

Oshisha, 1993.

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heure.”Roland Barthes.Oeuvres complètes. vol.3.

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