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Article: "Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me": politeness in Pride and Prejudice, Henry Fielding's "An Essay on Conversation" and Tom Jones.(Conference Papers)
- Article from:
- Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal
- Article date:
- January 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Jane Austen Society of North America. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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HENRY FIELDING'S "An Essay on Conversation," first published in 1743, made an enduring contribution to the eighteenth-century conduct book tradition. Fielding sees the art of conversation as integral to "good breeding," which he defines as "the art of pleasing" (123). Although Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet "dearly love[s] a laugh" (PP 57), she usually follows Fielding's advice ("An Essay on Conversation" 124): she turns the same wit on herself as on others.
We present evidence that Austen knew "An Essay on Conversation" well, and that she was probably influenced by it when she created Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. Long after its initial publication, "An ...