關(guān)于之真愛的探討

Austen's apparent reticence in matters of contemporary politics has often provoked comment from critics. For most of her adult life, Britain was at war with France and experiencing casualties on an unprecedented scale. Her brothers, Frank and Charles, served in the Royal Navy, in careers that brought not only wealth and honour, but also constant danger. It is evident from comments in Austen's surviving letters that she was far from ignorant of the international conflict; many readers have therefore pondered over the relative absence of reference to current affairs in her fiction. The question is particularly acute in Pride and Prejudice, at once the most military and the most witty and effervescent of all the novels. Here the militia are embodied in force, and yet the regiment billeted at meryton seems designed to provide dancing partners for the local community, rather than protection against a foreign foe. It is hard to imagine Mr Wickham, Chamberlayne or Denny engaged in action other than in the ballroom or at the card table.