No Finer County: Jane Austen, Derbyshire and the Romantic Imagination with Dr Paul Whickman

In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813), Caroline Bingley says to her brother Charles that ‘there is not a finer county in England’ than Derbyshire. 

The county is, after all, the location of Pemberley, seat of the dashing Mr Darcy, and home to all ‘the celebrated beauties of Matlock, Chatsworth, Dovedale [and] the Peak’.

Nevertheless, despite the commonly repeated myths that Austen visited Derbyshire in 1811, and even that she wrote some of Pride and Prejudice while staying at the Rutland Arms in Bakewell, there is in fact very little evidence that this was the case. This raises questions, therefore, of exactly what Austen’s relationship was to Derbyshire and what role the county played in Austen’s imaginative and creative process.

This talk, taking place in the week of Austen’s 250th birthday, seeks to offer answers to these questions while also highlighting Austen’s extraordinary and innovative contributions to the history of the English novel. Often regarded as a pioneer of free indirect discourse, Austen, as this talk will demonstrate, was nevertheless herself inspired by earlier writers including one, Samuel Richardson, who had significant Derbyshire connections.

Dr Paul Whickman is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Derby and Programme Leader for the MA in English. His research interests lie in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (primarily Romanticism) and censorship and free speech more broadly. His book, Blasphemy and Politics in Romantic Literature: Creativity in the Literature of Percy Bysshe Shelley, was published by Palgrave in 2020. He has also published in journals such as The Keats-Shelley Review and The Keats-Shelley Journal and was previously an academic advisor on both Byron and Shelley for Gale. Paul has also contributed chapters to The Routledge Companion to Freedom of Expression and Censorship (Routledge, 2023) and The Free Speech Wars (MUP, 2021). He was appointed a fellow of the English Association in 2024.

Presented as part of Jane Austen 250.

Suitable for Adults (18+). Booking essential. Limited places.

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