Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

Others in those classes intermarried with the freehold
class, muddying hard social distinctions (Mingay 9).
Although Bellamy restricts her study to the earliest
novels, works involving economic and inheritance language
often evolve into the narrative practices we see in
writers of the mid- and late-eighteenth century.
Richardson, Burney and Austen share similarities in their
lives and themes, taking the economic theory of Bellamy
further to include the economics of inheritance.
Certainly, Alistair Duckworth observes, Richardson's
Clarissa offers similar dilemmas and responses to those
in Austen, with the conflict in Clarissa between
authority and individuality echoed in Austen's plots.
Ian Watt is the first of many to consider the legacy of
Richardson in Burney and the close connection between
Burney and Austen. Richardson, Burney and Austen were
gentrified authors, and as such, produced gentrified
heroines able to disrupt class boundaries even further,
not only through marriage, but also through inheritance
problems and their disruptive language.