Nonfiction November: Jane Austen and Crime

 

Jane Austen and Crime, by Susannah Fullerton, was such a pleasure to read. Not only did I learn about crime and punishment during the Georgian and Regency eras, but the book also provided insightful lit crit about Austen's work. Fullerton not only pointed out criminal activity in the novels and Juvenilia, but Fullterton explored how Austen used these activities thematically and metaphorically.

Here is how the book is structured:

Scene of the Crime - all about Georgian and Regency life in England. Fullerton says in her introduction, "At no time in English history has the criminal scene changed so dramatically as it did during Jane Austen's lifetime." Population changes, enclosure laws, impact of Napoleonic wars, technological changes, and a host of other factors meant that what was considered criminal versus morally/spiritually reprehensible and how those crimes were punished changed. This section provides a nice overview of the rest of the book.

Crime Against Life: Murder and Suicide - while there are no actual murders in Austen's mature novels (they abound in her Juvenilia), I found the notion of mental murders interesting. For example, Mrs. Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility wishes a score of people dead, those to whom an annuity is paid as well as both her sons when they displease her. I loved the comparison of Mrs. Ferrars to Lewis Carroll's Queen of Hearts, shrieking "off with his head."

Not So Fun Fact: Suicide was considered a crime against both God, because human life belonged to God, and the King, because the person was depriving the monarch of their ability to produce. Suicide was considered self-murder.

Fullerton also goes into the rage for suicide among young men who were following the example set by the hero of The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe in 1774.

Crime Against Property: Theft - this was the biggie. Here's the opening paragraph that really spells out the issue:

Property was sacrosanct to the Georgians and had to be protected at all costs. A man could be hanged for stealing a chicken, but until 1801 attempted murder was classed only as a 'misdemeanour.' 'Stealing an heiress' meant death because an heiress was property incarnate, but stealing a child was not even a criminal offence. Theft could never be regarded as 'petty' in Jane Austen's time.

Crimes of Passion: Adultery, Elopement, Prostitution, Rape, Bastards - so much to talk about here! Especially with regards to Mansfield Park and acting in a role (in the play Lovers' Vows) that allows feelings that shouldn't develop be allowed to develop. And don't forget that a wife was a husband's property (see Theft). Fullerton explains the whole Crim.Con. (i.e., criminal conversation lawsuit that an injured husband could bring to the man who stole his wife).

The section on elopement covered, of course, Gretna Green and included some wonderful anecdotes of the wedding industry in that Scottish border town. It also covered the boarding schools that young ladies often attended and from which many elopements originated--apparently this is not just a plot device but was a real social problem.

Social Crime: Duelling, Poaching, Smuggling, Gaming - all super interesting info here. I loved the section on poaching that morphed into a detailed discussion of how Austen uses the metaphor of poaching in Mansfield Park and shows how Henry laid traps for both Maria and Fanny. Fullerton says that Austen "connected hunting and its associated criminal activity, poaching, with the husband hunt...She does not take sides...Women are portrayed as both the hunted and the huntresses, and like poachers, they attempt to snare without the authority of a Game Certificate."

Fun Thing to Think About: in the section on smuggling, Fullerton suggests that the loitering fishermen, who are not out to sea fishing when Louisa Musgrove jumps off the Cobb, might have been smugglers, waiting for the call for men to covertly bring in tea, lace, chocolate, coffee, spices, pearls, calico, and a laundry list of other goods that made life worth living.

Always loved this mock duel from the 1995 Sense and Sensibility

Gothic Crime - such a fun section with Northanger Abbey taking center stage. I absolutely loved this passage as it explains why we read and watch detective fiction and shows.

Something in the human psyche craves an encounter with crime and desires to see evil vanquished. Children satisfy this desire with fairy tales. Justice is done when the deadly wolf dies in a pot of boiling water...Adults in today's world turn to detective novels and thrillers to satisfy this need.

Punishment and the Law: Gaols, Hanging, Other Punishment, Men and the Law - the section on gaols was fantastic. The history itself was fascinating as was the discussion of the use of prisons metaphorically and physically in literature, with examples from Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, et al, and of course Austen. Again, Mansfield Park is explored with regards to imprisonment, freedom, cages, and locks.

Fun Fact: Jane Austen visited Canterbury County Gaol with her brother Edward in November 1813. A JASNA friend let me know that Stephanie Barron included this scene in her novel, Jane and the Canterbury Tale, one of the few in the series that I haven't read, but it is now on my tbr list!

 This was a wonderful book in that I learned a tremendous amount about real life in Georgian/Regency England. I gained new insights into how Austen used criminal activity to convey vital information about her characters and their stories. Now, I'm eager to reread the novels and look for details that I always overlooked!

It's not a super long book--just over 200 pages--with a terrific index, bibliography, and notes. Highly readable and super enjoyable.