Enduring Minds in Austen

This chapter draws on social psychological models of impression formation to show how Pride and Prejudice enables readers to acquire uncommonly durable mental models of its characters. This makes it possible to explain why Jane Austen’s readers have sometimes claimed that even flat characters devoid of psychological complexity can seem as lifelike and familiar as actual friends. The chapter also presents a new way to account for another distinctive feature of Austen’s reception history, which is the tendency for fans of Austen’s novels to display a possessive desire for friendship with the author herself. From a sociolinguistic perspective, Austen’s ironic, impersonal, and indirect style of narration permits readers to feel as if they share private rapport with the implied author.