D. W. Harding (2) (1906–1993)

Turns out some of the most interesting literary criticism on Jane Austen was written by a psychologist, especially in "Regulated Hatred" and the next three or four essays that follow. Harding's primary concerns are how Austen works out moral issues through her characters and the careful descriptions of bourgeois society. The essays in the first half of the book are also about how and why Austen wrote the way she did; mainly, so as to be able to skewer and parody the society she knew and show more loved and likely also hated and desired to be a part of, probably because she needed society's protection and the goodwill of the people in her life as a woman of her class who was acutely aware of the tremendous cost of going against social conventions. This tension is what makes Austen's work so intriguing, and Harding is very good on these aspects of her work because of the generosity of his thinking and his keen sense of empathy.

But somewhere in the middle, in the chapter on Mansfield Park, he started to repeat himself and I began to lose interest. The ideas have already been discussed in better, more original ways during the first half of the book. Because there's always so many other things to read, I stopped, but I might get around to the rest of it at some point. show less