Throughout her novels, Jane Austen uses carriages as a financial shorthand to indicate wealth, class, status-seeking, and economic dependency. In her presentation “Old Money, New Money, No Money – Carriages in Emma,” Deborah Paquin will delve into the economics and status represented by carriage culture in Emma and explore how Austen uses carriages to define her characters and drive plot lines.
Samuel Edmund Waller (1850-1903), Whispers of the Regency
How do carriages introduce us to Miss Hawkins, the future Mrs. Elton, and elaborate her character? How do Austen’s references to carriages in Highbury differ from the types of carriages which appear in Pride and Prejudice? Can we decipher and compare the character of Mr. Frank Churchill versus Mr. Knightley through the rhetoric used to describe their carriages?
No carriage? Not even a horse to ride like Lady Laetitia Lade, as painted by George Stubbs (1793)?
No worries! We will meet on April 20th at 2pm over Zoom. You may click anywhere in this sentence to register for this event.
About Deborah Paquin:
The New Voices speaker for the 2023 JASNA AGM, Deborah Paquin has worked in Corporate Communications in the high-tech industry for more than 30 years. Principal of her own PR firm, she specialized in semiconductor companies, working with clients ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies like Intel Corporation. She holds a BS in Business Administration from USC, a Graduate Diploma from the London School of Economics in International Business Studies, and most recently, completed a dual MA in English/MFA in Creative Writing from Chapman University in May 2023. Her essay, “Carriages as a Rhetorical Device in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice,” appeared in the Winter 2023 edition of Persuasions Online.
Jane Austen Society of North America - New Jersey Region 