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Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

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the language of effects of strict settlement and<br />

inheritance practice in some way. As Sale tells us,<br />

authors during specific periods often incorporate into<br />

their works the language and terms of a phenomenon within<br />

their society, describing and using competing tensions<br />

through representative characters and events that would<br />

be immediately recognizable to their contemporaries<br />

("From Pamela to <strong>Clarissa</strong>" 39).<br />

Authors of inheritance novels not only describe and<br />

use "competing tensions," they also are personally<br />

familiar with or involved with inheritance practices and<br />

language. Richardson was editor of the Journal of the<br />

House of Commons during a period when lawmakers<br />

introduced, debated and passed many laws dealing with<br />

inheritance issues. The Speaker of the House of Commons<br />

was a close friend and someone Richardson often talked<br />

with concerning political issues. Burney lived through<br />

her stepmother's and stepsister's marriages, both fraught<br />

with inheritance problems. Burney was particularly close<br />

to and, thus, closely aware of, her stepsister's<br />

inheritance predicament, made more bizarre by her<br />

stepmother's determination to pilfer Maria's inheritance<br />

for her own use. Austen also had a narrow escape from<br />

the throes of strict settlement. She watched as her

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