《community and cognition in PP》.pdf

Community and Cognition in Pride and Prejudice Author(s): William Deresiewicz Reviewed work(s): Source: ELH, Vol. 64, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 503-535 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: /stable. Accessed: 12/11/2011 18:22 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms Conditions of Use, available at . /page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@. The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ELH. COMMUNITYAND COGNITIONIN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE BYWILLIAMDERESIEWICZ The opening of Pride and Prejudicevies with Callme Ishmaelas the most famous first sentence in English-language fiction, yet that which makes it memorable also makes it anomalous within its authors corpus. Each of Jane Austens other novels begins by one of its characters.1 Pride and introducing principal Only Prejudice begins with an aphorism:Itis a truth universallyacknowledged,that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. An aphorism,or rathera mock aphorism,for it is immediately intimated that this truthuniversallyacknowledgedis in fact noth- more than one of the fixed of the of ing opinions neighborhood surroundingfamilies amidst which the novels action is to take place.2The introduction of individual charactersis delayed until the third paragraph(eve