The Business of Novel Writing: Walter Scott and Persuasion

Abstract

Two months after the publication of Waverley, Austen made the complaint cited above to her niece Anna (JAL, 227; 28 September 1814). Her statement is certainly not without justification, and has as much of prophecy as it does of mock-peevishness. Perceiving the novel as the only discursive field available to women, both artistically and financially, Austen articulates a general anxiety that must have been experienced by female novelists upon Scott’s entrance into the genre. Scott can be seen as legitimating the genre for men over the course of a few years, enabling them to become novel readers without feeling emasculated. Byron’s comment, also quoted above, is clearly indicative of this, merging a frank compliment to Scott with vitriolic contempt towards female novelists.¹