"Her Life's Solace Was Visiting and News": social networks and gossip in nineteenth-century novels

Karen Wade and Siobhán GraysonNation, Genre and Gender ProjectUCD Humanities Institute, Insight Data [email protected]; [email protected]

@nggprojectucdwww.nggprojectucd.ie

Supported by the Irish Research Council and Science Federation Ireland

"Her life's solace was visiting and news": social networks and gossip in nineteenth-century British and Irish novels

[Mrs. Bennet] was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.

- Pride and Prejudice, chapter 1

The Nation, Genre and Gender Project: a summary of our data

Project statistics (October 2016)

• 46 novels by 29 different authors, published between 1800 and 1922

• 1709 total chapters• 9,630 total unique

characters• 5,422,266 total words

A list of completed works can be found at www.theseaofbooks.com/novels-in-our-collection/

DialogueElson, David K., Nicholas Dames, and Kathleen R.

McKeown, ‘Extracting Social Networks from Literary Fiction’, in Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (presented at the Association for Computational Linguistics, Uppsala, Sweden, 2010)

Pettit, Mollie, “Star Trek Viz”. http://www.datascopeanalytics.com/startrekviz/ (2016)

Friendly or hostile relationsCukier, Jerome, “Events in the Game of Thrones”.

http://www.jeromecukier.net/projects/agot/events.html (2016)

Mac Carron, Pádraig, and Ralph Kenna, ‘Viking Sagas: Six Degrees of Icelandic Separation - Social Networks from the Viking Era’, Significance, 10 (2013), 12–17 <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2013.00704.x>

Translating co-occurrences into graphs

Guiding principles

Nothing is left to chance in the world of a novel:

– every character, no matter how minor, should be included, and

– every character mention affects the nature of the social networks

Radical inclusivityIn the process of data gathering, our annotators identify

every possible character for inclusion in the social networks - from

This can result in enormous communities – Pride and Prejudice has a relatively modest cast, at 117 characters, while Middlemarch’s population is 333, and Vanity Fair contains over 600 characters.

Character data: Elizabeth Bennet

Aliaseseliza, eliza bennet, elizabeth, elizabeth bennet, lizzy, miss elizabeth bennet

Attributescousin, daughter, english, female, sister, wife

Interactions in the novels, by gender

Male-maleFemale-femaleFemale-male

“Netherfield Park is let at last”: gossip in chapter 1 of Pride and Prejudice

Gossip: A and B discuss absent C

A + B

Gossip: A and B discuss absent C

A + B C

Gossip: A and B discuss absent C

A + B C

Gossip hotspot chaptersMiddlemarchChapter 11: at home, the Vincy family talk about their neighboursChapter 40: at home, the Garth family talk about Fred Vincy – and Peter Featherstone’s will

The Picture of Dorian GrayChapter 3: Lord Henry Wotton visits his aunt AgathaChapter 15: Dorian Gray and Lord Henry attend a party at Lady Narborough’s

Jane EyreNo examples

Pride and PrejudiceChapter 11: Supper at Aunt’s Philips’ house; Wickham makes false disclosures to ElizabethChapter 18: A ball at Netherfield Park in which multiple conversations occur

The ball at Netherfield Park: chapter 18

“…It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing were made the order of the day."

"Much more rational, my dear Caroline, I dare say, but it would not be near so much like a ball."

Interactions in chapter 18,

weighted degree

Gossip at the ballA (purveyor) B (recipient) C (subject)

Mr. Denny Elizabeth Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy“I do not imagine his business would have called him away just now, if he had not wished to avoid a certain gentleman here.”Charlotte Lucas Elizabeth Mr. Darcy and Mr. WickhamA caution “not to be a simpleton, and allow her fancy for Wickham to make her appear unpleasant in the eyes of a man ten times his consequence”Regiment Officer Elizabeth Mr. Wickham“the refreshment of talking of Wickham, and of hearing that he was universally liked”Elizabeth Mr. Darcy Mr. Wickham“we had just been making a new acquaintance”Mr. Darcy Elizabeth Mr. Wickham“Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his making friends…”Sir William Lucas Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy Jane and Bingley“when a certain desirable event… shall take place”Caroline Bingley Elizabeth Mr. Wickham“George Wickham has treated Mr. Darcy in a most infamous manner.”Jane Bennet Elizabeth Mr. Wickham“Mr. Wickham is by no means a respectable young man”Elizabeth Jane Bennet Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy“This account then is what he has received from Mr. Darcy.”Mr. Collins Elizabeth Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mr. Darcy“I believe him to be Lady Catherine's nephew.”Mrs. Bennet Lady Lucas Jane and Bingley[talking] freely, openly, and of nothing else but her expectation that Jane would soon be married to Mr. Bingley

Lee-Riffe: the role of dancing in Jane Austen

“…the dance setting which so naturally brought a great number and variety of people together provides Austen with wonderful opportunities to maneuver plot elements: Jane and Elizabeth can meet Bingley and Darcy at the local public assembly…”

“… most important perhaps, is the opportunity Austen seizes from the dance setting to define and emphasize the personal qualities of her characters, as we have already been observing.” (109)

- Lee-Riffe, Nancy M., ‘The Role of Country Dance in the Fiction of Jane Austen’, Women’s Writing, 5 (1998), 103–12

Purveyors of gossip: male and femaleChapter 18

Men (4)Mr. Denny, Mr. Darcy, Sir William Lucas,

Mr. Collins

Women (5)Elizabeth Bennet, Charlotte Lucas, Jane

Bennet, Caroline Bingley, Mrs. Bennet

Chapter 11

Men (2)Mr. Wickham, Mr. Collins

Women (1)Elizabeth Bennet

The gendering of gossipAs the same time that it became synonymous with nastiness, gossip was also more and more regarded as a female activity. It was said that men didn't "gossip"; instead, they engaged in "shop talk" or "locker-room chatter" - they were "shooting the breeze" or "chewing the fat". And those few men unfortunate enough to be caught in the act of "spreading the dirt" were said to be acting like women... (6)- Levin, Jack, and Arnold Arluke, Gossip: The Inside Scoop (Springer, 2013)

“Enumerating”Mrs. Bennet seemed incapable of fatigue while enumerating the advantages of the match [between Jane and Bingley]. His being such a charming young man, and so rich, and living but three miles from them, were the first points of self-gratulation; and then it was such a comfort to think how fond the two sisters were of Jane, and to be certain that they must desire the connection as much as she could do. It was, moreover, such a promising thing for her younger daughters, as Jane's marrying so greatly must throw them in the way of other rich men…• Chapter 18, Pride and Prejudice