Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Critics chide Austen for mentioning money so much in her novels...

52 replies

MsAmerica · 23/07/2026 21:33

but it seems to me that Balzac mentions money far, far more.

Austen mostly speaks of money when mentioning someone income. Balzac does it incessantly, mentioning amounts spent on re-decorating, even the amount of a porter's tip.

Justice for Austen!

OP posts:
Dappy777 · 04/08/2026 18:20

It's such a silly, reductive way to approach literature. You have to understand any work of art in its historical context. It's absurd to constantly reduce things to the standards you happen to live by. I totally agree with Harold Bloom on this. Believe me, many of the things that feature in contemporary novels will disgust future readers (eating meat, for example). Great art is great because it is timeless. People will still be reading Austen long after those silly critics are dead.

MarmaladeorJam · 04/08/2026 18:21

Well said @Dappy777

Historical context is so very important

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread