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Sadie Stein on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Episode 11

Violently in Love

Featuring Sadie Stein

Audio episode · 18 min

Sadie Stein on Pride and Prejudice

Violently in love: in Pride and Prejudice the phrase is Elizabeth's, and she is sure it describes what Bingley felt before he vanished to London. Before the winter is out, a married woman she actually respects will make her defend it. Chapters twenty-four through twenty-seven: an empty great house, Caroline Bingley's poisonous kindness, Jane absorbing every blow so quietly her own mother misses the injury. Sadie Stein starts with conduct, and why carrying yourself well is the only lever these sisters are permitted to pull. She ends with the Gardiners, the one married couple in the book you might actually envy. Between them comes Jane's awakening, which Stein calls the winter's real event.

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