Speaking Volumes: Women, Reading and Speech in the Age of Austen by Patricia Howell Michaelson (review)

Patricia Howell Michaelson. Speaking Volumes: Women, Readingand Speech in theAge ofAusten. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002. 26 Ip. L. Adam Mekler Morgan State University Patricia Howell Michaelson's Speaking Volumes: Women, Reading, andSpeech in the Age ofAusten presents a very original perspective on the literature produced duringJane Austen's time. Austen lived from 1775 until 1817, although Michaelson includes the entire "long" eighteenth century in her analysis, which incorporates works published as earlyas 17 10 and concludes with Austen's Persuasion, published posthumously in 1818. As her title suggests, Michaelson presents a close examination of the process of reading, not as a wholly silent and solitary pursuit, but rather in its use as a social activity, where the spoken performance ofwritten literature allows the reader/speaker to negotiate heror his own identitywithin a social context. Her primary texts, therefore, become not only numerous examples of published literature such as novels and plays, but also literary representations of different speech acts, incorporating theater reviews, journals, letters, and other more personal accounts of individual acts of reading. This format allows Michaelson to develop a unique framework within which to develop her argument. Essentially, she takes as her central premise the assertion that language use by women cannot adequately be explained from a perspective that equates speaking and silencewith power and submission, respectively, as much feminist linguistic criticism has done. Michaelson also rejects the notion that such a thing as a universal "woman's language" existed during this period. Instead, she encourages the reader to imagine "a range of strategies possible in any specific encounter, and a range ofmotivations guiding our strategic choices. Indeed, speaking and silence should not be seen solely as a power game that everyone tries to win" (6). Building on this belief, Michaelson explores a wide range of forms of expression exemplified by different writers ofthe long eighteenth century, which necessarily includes consideration ofclass and religion in addition to gender. Ultimately , she demonstrates how silence can in fact be a very powerful tool and how language in and ofitselfis not always a symbol ofpower, especially, for example, when it is embodied in the form ofthe stereotypical woman's language ofthe time, associated with loquacity and senselessness. Michaelson divides her discussion into five chapters, beginning with a general discussion ofwomen and language in the eighteenth Century, especially as examined by linguists, educators, and writers ofconduct books. This chapter provides a very thorough and useful foundation for the chapters that follow, each ofwhich 68 * ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW * FALL 2003 Reviews focuses on one or two main figures, which include Amelia Opie, Sarah Siddons, Frances Burney, and, ofcourse, Jane Austen. However, rather than provide extensive close readings oftheir writings (or in the case ofthe actress Siddons, her performances ), Michaelson examines the people themselves within their biographical and historical contexts, which include but are not limited to their professional careers. She examines, for example, the circumstances surrounding Opie's conversion to what Michaelson refers as a "mediated" form ofQuakerism, whose tremendous emphasis on die importance ofsilence during worship and whose preference for sincerity over civility in speech gives Michaelson ample opportunity to explore different modes ofspeech available to women of this time. Similar discussion is found in the chapter on Sarah Siddons, who, Michaelson explains, negotiated with various degrees of success her different roles as public actress and private woman, wife, and mother. Equally well treated is Frances Burney, whose relationship with her father, Charles, provides valuable insight into different forms of reading and speaking within the domestic circle. The most important figure, however, isJaneAusten herself. Michaelson explains in her preface that it was by reading Pride and Prejudice aloud with a friend that she first became interested in this topic, and her esteem for Austen is shown throughout the work. All six ofAusten's completed novels are discussed in some length, with relevant references made to at least one ofthe novels in each ofthe first four chapters . More importantly, the final chapter, "Reading Austen, Practicing Speech," uses the most detailed textual analysis in the book, focusing on Pride andPrejudice and Persuasion to support Michaelson's claim that during Austen's time, novels eventually took the place ofconversation manuals in the teaching ofspeech...