Introduction

The introductory chapter discusses the problems – both theoretical and practical – of representing respectability as a historical phenomenon. It identifies respectability’s principal elements (the self-respecting self, moral competence, and a hierarchy of moral value intersecting other social hierarchies) through a reading of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The same reading introduces other aspects of respectability that cut across all three of the principal elements, including traditional concepts of virtue, notions of taste shaped by moderation, and specific constructions of gender and class.