'A parcel of heart': the business of love in Peregrine Pickle. (2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Breashears, Caroline
• Is Part Of: International journal of pluralism and economics education. Volume 7:Number 2(2016)
• Page Start: 198
• Page End: 212
• Publication Date: 2016
• Subjects: business development -- love -- novels -- prudence -- bourgeoisie -- gentleman -- rhetoric -- contracts -- 18th century -- financial revolution -- industrial revolution -- bubble -- memoir -- economic growth -- Tobias Smollett -- Adventures of Peregrine Pickle; Economics -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Pluralism -- Periodicals; 330.071
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1757-5648

Abstract

McCloskey (2010) has linked modern economic growth with a change in rhetoric about the bourgeoisie and virtues such as prudence. She locates this shift in the 17th and 18th centuries in northern Europe. I build on that argument in analysing a unique novel published on the cusp of the industrial revolution - Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle. In which Are Included, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality (2014) - which focuses on two representatives of the rising bourgeoisie: a real woman (Lady Vane) and her fictional counterpart, Peregrine. I argue that, through tracing their adventures, this work illuminates the transition in rhetoric about prudence and the bourgeoisie: it does not simply depict the bourgeoisie as dignified but shows how people negotiated the meanings of key terms such as 'gentleman', 'prudence', 'love', and 'contract'.