S3 E6 Rachel Feder's The Darcy Myth

If you like your literature with a side of pop culture, you’ll love what’s on the menu for today: Rachel Feder’s clever & informative study, The Darcy Myth: Jane Austen, Literary Heartthrobs, and the Monsters They Taught Us to Love (2023).  Let’s face it, whether or not we have read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and whether we love or hate it, Lizzie and Mr. Darcy’s love story has had a massive influence on our culture, specifically in terms of how straight women view the “story” of love and envision their “ideal” guy.

Sonja and Vanessa examine the main argument of Rachel Feder’s thoroughly entertaining exploration of our collective love for Mr. Darcy.  Feder asks an important question:  what effect has loving Mr. Darcy in fiction had on our real lives? Is Feder right that we might have taken the fantasy too far?  

This episode is for you if you have ever met a woman (or been a woman…) who is dating a guy that everyone else thinks is a jerk, but YOU understand him, and YOU know he’ll change, and YOU are willing to do the work to transform him. If this sounds eerily familiar, then Rachel Feder’s insightful book might help you understand the psychology at work, and this episode will (hopefully) sell you on checking out or (better yet) buying The Darcy Myth.

Along the way, Sonja and Vanessa brush up against the possibility that Longbourne is a haunted house, once again find themselves circling back to questions about female odysseys, and–quite innocently–find themselves porn adjacent. 

REFERENCES

Check out Rachel Feder's Website for a list of all her works, including her newest book, Taylor Swift By the Book:  The Literature Behind the Lyrics, from Fairy Tales to Tortured Poets (2024), co-authored with Tiffany Tatreau

Marriage: a History by Stephanie Coontz can be purchased here.

For a deep dive into Jane Eyre, check out On Eyre, a special series from Hot and Bothered Podcast, hosted by Vanessa Zoltan & Lauren Sandler.

The mention of virginity as a “fettish” is in Virginia Woolf’s collection of lectures, A Room of One’s Own, specifically in the section entitled, “If Shakespeare Had a Sister.” You can purchase the entire volume, or there are many pdf versions of the “If Shakespeare Had a Sister” section, like this one from the University of Minnesota @ Duluth.

The mention of Clarissa and Pamela are to two novels by 18th century novelist, Samuel Richardson.  Our 5th episode of season 3 is actually about Pamela (1740), and if you’d rather not read it but would still like to know about it, you will find that episode very helpful and fun.  We have not read Clarissa…yet?...it’s about 1,500 pages, so no promises…