So Odd a Mixture: Along the Autistic Spectrum in 'Pride and Prejudice'

by Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer

Autism was not a recognised disorder in Jane Austen's lifetime, nor for well over a century after her death. However there were certainly people who had autism, and Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer proposes that Austen wrote about them, without knowing what it was that she was describing.

So Odd a Mixture looks at eight seemingly diverse characters in Austen's classic novel, Pride and Prejudice, who display autistic traits. These characters - five in the Bennet family and three in the extended family of the Fitzwilliams - have fundamental difficulties with communication, empathy and theory of mind. Perhaps it is high-functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome that provides an explanation for some characters' awkward behaviour at crowded balls, their frequent silences or their tendency to lapse into monologues rather than truly converse with others.

This fascinating book will provide food for thought for students and fans of Austen's classic novel, and for anyone interested in autism spectrum disorders.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Health, Books About Books, Literature, Autistic Spectrum Disorder

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2007

About the author

Phyllis Bottomer is a speech language pathologist with 30 years experience who is employed by the North Vancouver School District. She is also a member and guest speaker of the Jane Austen Society of North America so has a unique knowledge of both Austen and the autistic spectrum.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

So odd a Mixture is the perfect blend of Austen fiction with real life psychology. In it, Bottomer lays out an argument for 8 characters from Pride and Prejudice who she believes to be on the Autism spectrum with extensive quoting from the book to support her reasoning.

Bottomer, a speech and language pathologist, lays out the nine areas of difficulty that people o the Autism spectrum commonly possess: theory of mind, central coherence, central coherence, executive function, cognitive shifting, language processing, dyspraxia (impairment of motor planning), awareness of unwritten rules of conversation, interpretation of non-verbal cues from facial expressions or gestures, and sensory activities. She claims that there is a 4:1 ratio of men to women diagnosed with Austism and a 9:1 ratio of men to women diagnosed with Aspergers. Yet in Austen's Pride and Prejudice there is a 5:3 ratio of women to men on the Autism spectrum, causing Bottomer to speculate that there may have been an unusual number of women in Austen's life on the spectrum.

While I feel that Bottomer is certainly reaching at certain points, going so far as to point out characters' misinterpretations and to state when Austen and/or critics got it wrong, for the most part she makes some clear and convincing arguments that, if believed, will change the way you fundamentally think about these famous characters.

[pldn💫 · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some questionable statements here (like the repeated mention of how autistic people don’t have any empathy, the repeated use of Aspengers, the concept of “severe” and “mild” autism, and how autistic people are supposedly unable to care for others? The author also refers to autism as a “weakness”: Lydia was doubly damned at birth by her neurological make-up and by having parents with similar weaknesses. The author also acts like marrying as someone “with strong autistic traits” is impossible). There are also things I disagree with, like lady Catherine being autistic. Sure, she might be, but she also believes she’s superior to others, and that has nothing to do with autism, she just sucks. Or Mr Collins not accepting Elizabeth’s refusal because he’s autistic, no, he doesn’t accept it because Austen wrote about the time period, and in the time period when women said no it meant yes and how dare she refuse my marriage proposal. Also, you cannot take the pride out of pride and prejudice. It’s literally on the title. Both Darcy and Elizabeth have pride and prejudice inside of them, which they overcome. You cannot claim Darcy didn’t struggle with any pride, just autism, because then you are going against the literal point of the book (I agree with Darcy being most likely autistic, however autism and pride are not mutually exclusive). Which led me to believe this book would have been much better if Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer was autistic herself. I find writing books on autism a tricky subject if you aren’t autistic yourself, because while it has no reason to go wrong, there will be things you don’t realize, or mistakenly believe, or see in a bad light while its not actually something bad, simply because you never had to live these things, you simply learnt them from a scientific standpoint, instead of it being a lived experience.

That being said, even if I don’t agree with all the things said in this book, I do am glad to have read it. I am a big Austen fan and Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books of hers, and while the suspicion of Darcy being autistic has always been there, it has been so interesting to see how many others characters who I didn’t even realized could be autistic fit the criteria. Definitely can’t unsee it now than I see it. I feel like calling of these characters autistic is definitely a stretch, but it is worth mentioning their autistic traits.

I also loved the last chapter about Austen’s life and people she met that might have been autistic and helped her get inspired.

The characters mentioned are: Mr Collins, Mary Bennet, Lydia Bennet, Mr Bennet, Mrs Bennet, Anne de Bourgh, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and Mr Darcy.

It’s a quick read never lacking details and explanations, and I recommend it for anyone interested.

[Kerrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was compelling reading. While I didn’t agree with everything in the book, the author is a subject matter expert on Austen and autism, and she has sound evidence to support her analysis.

It is also well written and entertaining, and has left me with lots to think about.

[Andrea Hickman Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were some things I disagreed with, but on the whole it was a really interesting reading of P&P and for those with less experience with AS people, I think it provides pretty clear descriptions of traits and behaviours that can be expected.

[Marcela]

I've seen various movie versions of Pride and Prejudice but that didn't give me enough background to really get into this book. Think it's more for true Jane Austin fans that also are into psychology.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting break down of the characters in Pride and Prejudice and where they are on the autism spectrum.