Becoming the Gentleman Global Masculinities Edited by Michael Kimmel and Judith Kegan Gardiner

Michael Kimmel is Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including: Men’s Lives, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men; The Gendered Society ; The Politics of Manhood; and Manhood in America: A Cultural History . He edits Men and Masculinities , an interdisciplinary scholarly journal, and edited the Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities and the Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities . He consults with corporations, NGOs and public-sector organizations all over the world on gender equity issues, including work-family balance, reducing workplace discrimination, and promoting diversity. Judith Kegan Gardiner is Professor of English and of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her books are Craftsmanship in Context: The Development of Ben Jonson’s Poetry and Rhys, Stead, Lessing, and the Politics of Empathy . She is the editor of the volumes Provoking Agents: Gender and Agency in Theory and Practice ; Masculinity Studies and Feminist Theory ; and a coeditor of The International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities . She is also a member of the editorial board for the interdisciplinary journal Feminist Studies.

Published by Palgrave Macmillan: Masculine Style: The American West and Literary Modernism By Daniel Worden Men and Masculinities Around the World: Transforming Men’s Practices Edited by Elisabetta Ruspini, Jeff Hearn, Bob Pease, and Keith Pringle Constructions of Masculinity in British Literature from the Middle Ages to the Present Edited by Stefan Horlacher Becoming the Gentleman: British Literature and the Invention of Modern Masculinity, 1660–1815 By Jason D. Solinger Becoming the Gentleman

British Literature and the Invention of Modern Masculinity, 1660–1815

J a s o n D . S o l i n g e r BECOMING THE GENTLEMAN Copyright © Jason D. Solinger, 2012. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-39183-3 All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-35176-3 ISBN 978-0-230-39184-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230391840 Portions of chapter 2 first appeared in “The Politics of Alexander Pope’s Urbanity,” Genre 36.1–2 (2003). An earlier version of chapter 4 first appeared in “Jane Austen and the Gentrification of Commerce,” Novel 38 (2005) and is reprinted by permission of the present publisher, Duke University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Solinger, Jason D. Becoming the gentleman : British literature and the invention of modern masculinity, 1660–1815 / Jason D. Solinger. p. cm.—(Global masculinities)

1. English literature—History and criticism. 2. Men in literature. 3. Masculinity in literature. I. Title. PR151.M46S65 2012 820.9 Ј352041—dc23 2012000667 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: July 2012 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Lori

Contents

Note from the Series Editors ix Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1 1 Gentlemen and Their Knowledge of the World 11 2 The Politics of Alexander Pope’s Urbanity 41 3 The Dissemination of Knowledge of the World from The Connoisseur to Evelina 65 4 Austen’s Fiction in the Age of Commerce 91 5 Sir Walter Scott and the Gentrification of Empire 111 Conclusion 141 Postscript: Old Sir Walter 145

Notes 151 Works Cited 171 Index 183

Note from the Series Editors

In Sweden, a “real man” is one who does childcare for his own chil- dren, and liberals and conservatives argue not about whether there should be government-mandated paternity leave but about the allo- cation of time between new mothers and fathers. In China, years of enforcing a one-child rule have led to a population with a vast demographic imbalance in the number of males over females, with conse- quences yet to be determined. In Iran, vasectomy becomes increasingly popular as men seek to take more responsibility for family planning in an atmosphere of restrictive gender roles. In the Philippines, government-supported exports of women as nurses, maids, and nannies to first-world countries alters the lives of boys and girls growing up both at home and in the developed countries, and Mexican-American men adapt to their wives’ working by doing increased housework and childcare, while their ideology of men’s roles changes more slowly. And throughout the world, warfare continues to be a predominantly male occupation, devastating vast populations, depriving some boys of a childhood, and promoting other men to positions of authority. Global Masculinities is a series devoted to exploring the most recent, most innovative, and widest ranging scholarship about men and masculinities from a broad variety of perspectives and meth- odological approaches. The dramatic success of Gender Studies has rested on three developments: (1) making women’s lives visible, which has also come to mean making all genders more visible; (2) insisting on intersectionality and so complicating the category of gender; and (3) analyzing the tensions among global and local iterations of gender. Through textual analyses and humanities-based studies of cultural representations, as well as cultural studies of attitudes and behaviors, we have come to see the centrality of gender in the structure of modern life and life in the past, varying across cultures and within them. Through interviews, surveys, and demographic analysis, among other forms of social scientific inquiry, we are now able to quantify some of the effects of these changing gender structures. Clearly written for both the expert and more general audience, this series embraces the x NOTE FROM THE SERIES EDITORS advances in scholarship and applies them to men’s lives: gendering men’s lives, exploring the rich diversity of men’s lives—globally and locally, textually and practically—as well as the differences among men by social class, “race”/ethnicity and nationality, sexuality, ability status, sexual preference and practices, and age.

MICHAEL KIMMEL AND JUDITH KEGAN GARDINER

Acknowledgments

Timely institutional support made this book possible. Grants through The Citadel Foundation enabled me to undertake research at the British Library. Grants through UM’s College of Liberal Arts made it possible to finish the book in the summer months. Portions of chapter 2 appeared under the title of “The Politics of Alexander Pope’s Urbanity” in Genre (36.1–2 [2003]: 47–79). A version of chapter 4 appeared under the title of “Jane Austen and the Gentrification of Commerce” in Novel (38 [2005]: 272–90), and is reprinted by permission of the present publisher, Duke University Press. To the read- ers and editors who improved the manuscript, thank you. Brigitte Shull and the staff at Palgrave Macmillan have been nothing less than exceptionally professional. I am grateful to Judith Kegan Gardiner and Michael Kimmel for including the book in the Global Masculinities series. The origins of Becoming the Gentleman are in the classes I took as an undergraduate at Cornell University’s ILR School, where I first learned to think about social categories and the role of literature in changing how people think. Professors Gerd Korman of ILR and Edgar Rosenberg of the Departments of English and Comparative Literature made me want to become a professor, saving me from law school and who knows what else. At San Diego State University, Clare Colquitt encouraged and disciplined my writing. As a friend and mentor, Bill Nericcio continues to teach me how to do the work and have fun. At Brown University, this project was born and came to frui- tion under the brilliant guidance of Nancy Armstrong, whose critical insights, sense of humor and tough love helped at every stage. Philip Gould was an early and thoughtful reader. Over the years, a number of scholars and friends have read and responded to parts of the manuscript, for which I am grateful. Gena Zuroski, who was my eighteenth-century graduate student cohort, has been steady in her encouragement. A special thank you goes to Leonard Tennenhouse. xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have been lucky to have had very good colleagues, first at The Citadel and now at the University of Mississippi. I appreciate Ivo Kamps, a great chair, who has been generous with his support and his advice. Peter Reed and Marc Lerner, both of whom read portions of the book, endured more than a few hours of my kvetching. On that note, thanks are owed to NYC flaneur Jonathan Goldman. To my family, I wish I could pay you back tenfold. I owe so much to my parents, and to my in-laws, for their patience and support in the face of this strange career. My mother, Robin Grusko, needs to be singled out for being, on top of everything else that she already is, a great editor. My sons Eli and Jordan, my best pals on planet earth, your comedy and love mean everything. I am most thankful for and to Lori, without whom I’d be lost.