Episode 5: Pride and Prejudice

It’s Pride and Prejudice! Jane Austen’s beloved 1813 novel about two jerks who discover that they’re hot for each other. We talk about character and the novel, as well as economies of desire and of the social, and we discuss the relative awfulness of the bourgeoisie vs. the aristocracy. We also wonder who even is Mary Bennet and grow concerned that Kitty Bennet might be secretly alt-right.

On the show, we read the Oxford edition edited by James Kinsley with notes and introduction by Fiona Stafford. For a landmark study of how the rise of capital shaped the development of the novel (and Austen’s role in that story), see Deidre Lynch’s The Economy of Character: Novels, Market Culture, and the Business of Inner Meaning.

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @betterreadpod, and email us nice things at [email protected]. Find Tristan on Twitter @tjschweiger, Katie @katiekrywo, and Megan @tuslersaurus.