Jane Austen and the Clergy - Paperback

by Irene Collins (Author)

Jane Austen was the daughter of a clergyman, the sister of two others and the cousin of four more. Her principal acquaintances were clergymen and their families, whose social, intellectual and religious attitudes she shared. Yet while clergymen feature in all her novels, often in major roles, there has been little recognition of their significance. To many readers their status and profession is a mystery, as they appear simply to be a sub-species of gentlemen and never seem to perform any duties. Mr Collins in Pride and prejudice is often regarded as little more than a figure of fun.

Astonishingly, Jane Austen and the Clergy is the first book to demonstrate the importance of Jane Austen's clerical background and to explain the clergy in her novels, whether Mr Tilney in Northanger Abbey, Mr Elton in Emma, or a less prominent character such as Dr Grant in Mansfield Park. In this exceptionally well-written and enjoyable book, Irene Collins draws on a wide knowledge of the literature and history of the period to describe who the clergy were, both in the novels and in life: how they were educated and appointed the houses they lived in and the gardens they designed and cultivated; the women they married; their professional and social context; their income, their duties, their moral outlook and their beliefs. Jane Austen and the Clergy uses the facts of Jane Austen's life and the evidence contained in her letters and novels to give a vivid and convincing portrait of the contemporary clergy.

Author Biography

Irene Collins graduated in History at Oxford and taught for many years at Liverpool University, where she is now Reader Emeritus. As a popular lecturer to history societies throughout the U.K., and the author of several books and articles on Britain and Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, she was awarded in 1996 the Historical Association's Norton Medlicott Medal for Services to History. Her interest in the connection between history and literature has led her to focus her attention on the life and novels of Jane Austen, on which she has lectured widely in both England and America. She is a Vice-President of the Jane Austen Society, and Patron of the Northern Branch.