Sheryl Craig, from “Pride and Prejudice: The Speenhamland System” [from Jane Austen and the State of the Nation]
In Jane Austen and the State of the Nation, Sheryl Craig reads Austen’s novels as political novels, arguing that her work displays a life-long investment in liberal Tory views. In this chapter on Pride and Prejudice, she argues that, beyond the novel’s widely recognized engagement with the economics of marriage, in its later volumes Pride and Prejudice can be read as a “1796–97 state-of-the-nation novel” reflecting contemporary debate regarding the Poor Laws and the possibility of a minimum wage. Whig characters, Craig argues, are easily identifiable in the novel, and include “admirable” moderates (who might serve as Tory allies) as well as “detestable” radicals.