Notes on "Class and Money, Interpreters of Jane Austin's Social World: Literary Critics and Historians"

The critical article I read on Jane Austin and her book Pride and Prejudice was about two important themes of the book, social class and money. The author of the article, David Spring, first takes on the theme of social class and divides the hierarchy into three distinctive groups. Spring names them the aristocracy, the gentry and the nonlanders. The aristocracy are defined by owning land and possessing lots of money. At the same time, the aristocracy has a steady ad very high income. The gentry is very similar to this, as they own land as well, but do not posses and make as much money. The nonlanders are significantly different as they do not own any land and have almost no authority. Next, Spring discuses an idea for another social class called the pseudo-gentry. This social class does not posses any land either, however they life and pretend like they were part of the gentry. Spring explains that this group focuses their whole lives on becoming true gentry. Lastly, Spring examines the family situation in in which Austin grew up. It was interesting to see that her family was part of the pseudo-gentry class. Spring argues that this might be the reason why Austin's speaks so highly of the pseudo-gentry social class in her books. The article was very interesting to read, as it connected English history with Pride and Prejudice.