The Heritage of Charles Bingley and Other Genealogies: The Children of the Abbey and Pride and Prejudice

READERS IN 1816 and throughout the nineteenth century might well have felt a kinship with Emma's Harriet Smith, who excitedly recommends two books to Robert Martin: Ann Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest and Regina Maria Roche's The Children of the Abbey. Though Robert Martin has n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Persuasions : the Jane Austen journal (Print version) 2023-01 (45), p.76-90
Main Author: d, Susan Allen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
Austen, Jane (1775-1817)
Children
Females
Interpersonal relations
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:READERS IN 1816 and throughout the nineteenth century might well have felt a kinship with Emma's Harriet Smith, who excitedly recommends two books to Robert Martin: Ann Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest and Regina Maria Roche's The Children of the Abbey. Though Robert Martin has never read these books, never even heard of them (E 28), both were extraordinarily popular. In the "spacious room" that she assumes to have been her mother's dressing room, she is confronted "not by a picture, but by the real form of a woman, with a death-like countenance!" (470)-the Countess Dunreath, who has been imprisoned there for years.5 And Harriet Smith's own plot is reflected in that of Roche's Ellen Edwin, who breaks off her romance with the faithful farmer Tim Chip because she mistakes the Reverend Howell's love for Amanda for an interest in her. Later, in London, Sir Charles Bingley's proposal of marriage to Amanda and her refusal cause Mortimer to realize that she is true to him, leading to a (temporary) restoration of confidence between them.
ISSN:0821-0314