Persuasions #10, 1988 Page 43 Another Source for Pride and Prejudice CHARLES ISSAWI Near Eastern Studies Department, Jones Hall, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 In case no one has noticed this before, I should like to point out a
possible derivation for Jane Austen’s title, Pride and Prejudice. In Chapter 2 of his “Decline and Fall,” Gibbon
says: Without
destroying the distinction of ranks, a distant prospect of freedom and honours
was presented, even to those whom pride and prejudice almost disdained to
number among the human species.1 It is highly probable that Jane Austen read that book. NOTE 1 Edward
Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. by
Betty Radice (London: The Folio Society, 1983), I, 63. |