Keeping us reading

An old essay by Edd Winfield Parks explores the question of how Austen gets us to move on to the next chapter. She doesn’t, he points out, use cliff-hanger chapter endings, like a John Grisham novel. What keeps us reading? The question becomes more pointed when we notice that Austen often closes of a chapter with a summary statement, more often a description of the characters than a summary of the plot-thus-far.

Parks argues that Austen keeps us reading by leaving questions of character unanswered. The opening chapter of P&P describes Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s character and mind; Mrs. Bennet’s is fixed, and remains so throughout the book. Mr. Bennet’s character, though is “unstable”: “The interest which she engenders is in following changes and revelations of character instead of changes in plot.”