1. The terms aristocracy, gentry and middle class will recur throughout my discussion of Jane Austen’s novels. I use them in accordance with the definitions established by G. E. Mingay, English Landed Society in the Eighteenth Century (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963) pp. 19–49, and
2. Harold Perkin, The Origins of Modern English Society, 1780–1880 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969) pp. 17–62. Both Mingay and Perkin argue that the crucial division in eighteenth-century society was between those who lived almost entirely off their rents, that is, the landlords, and those who had to work for a living, whether on the land or in towns.
3. Asa Briggs, The Age of Improvement, 1783–1867 (London: Longman, 1959) p. 101.
4. All references to Jane Austen’s novels are included in the text and are taken from R. W. Chapman (ed.), The Novels of Jane Austen, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933); Vol. 1, Sense and Sensibility; Vol. 2, Pride and Prejudice; Vol. 3, Mansfield Park; Vol. 4, Emma; Vol. 5, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Vol. 6, Minor Works was published in 1954. The title of the novel is cited in the text only when the reference would otherwise be unclear.
5. Quoted from Rosamund Bayne-Powell, Travellers in Eighteenth-Century England (London: John Murray, 1951) pp. 136–7.