The History of Literature: Episode 782

Consent in the Regency Novel (with Zoë McGee)
Original Airdate: March 9, 2026
Host: Jacke Wilson | Guest: Zoë McGee

Episode Overview

This episode centers on the concept of consent in the Regency novel, exploring how literary depictions of agency, resistance, and gendered power in the early 19th century both reflected and critiqued contemporary social attitudes. Host Jacke Wilson is joined by scholar Zoë McGee, author of Courting: Reading Between the Lines of the Regency Novel, to discuss how landmark novels—from Jane Austen to Samuel Richardson—navigate the intricacies of consent, sexual politics, and societal expectations. The episode draws connections between historical norms and present-day issues, shedding light on persistent challenges and the roots of modern conversations about consent.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Zoë McGee’s Introduction to Regency Literature

• Zoë’s first experience with 18th-century literature was reading Pride and Prejudice, which she picked up thinking it was Jane Eyre at age 7 or 8. Initially confused and unable to fully grasp the content, she was enticed by the book’s design and continued her interest after watching the 1995 BBC adaptation.
  “I didn’t really understand any of it, but I liked it because the writing was very, very small and it had these sort of very fancy letters… So I felt like I was really smart for trying to read it.” – Zoë McGee [04:53]

• She reflects on how encountering “grown-up” books as a child allows one to approach them with fewer preconceptions and less fear of failure than adults often have.
  “Almost coming at it as a child, you don’t have that same fear of failure… you just kind of get these preconceptions about what things are supposed to be like or feel like to read, and that can get in our way in a way that we don’t do as much as children.” – Zoë McGee [06:06]

2. Literary Terrain of the Regency & 18th-Century Novel

• The Regency/late 18th-century is characterized as a time of literary experimentation, diversity, and innovation. Novels were a new form, largely shaped, consumed, and authored by women.
  “We joked about it being like the miscellaneous drawer in the filing cabinet… you’ve just got so many very different things going on.” – Zoë McGee [07:51]
• Women were prominent readers and writers, especially before the Victorian era codified novelistic norms.

3. Consent, Agency, and Gender in Literature

Mr. Collins’ Proposal (Pride and Prejudice)

• Zoë relates a modern university consent workshop to the infamous proposal scene in Pride and Prejudice, where Mr. Collins refuses to accept Elizabeth's “no”—mirroring contemporary challenges in recognizing and respecting boundaries.

  “He's just too dense and poor Lizzie has to fend him off. But… it is unbelievable how many times she has to tell him no, and in such different ways.” – Jacke Wilson [13:07]

  “This is Lizzy, right? She's so good with her words... there's a world where she very easily could end up needing to marry Mr. Collins. And he's going to be like that all the time.” – Zoë McGee [14:24]

• The episode explores how, in Austen’s time, marriage signaled legal surrender of a woman’s sexual consent. Marital rape was not criminalized in the UK until the 1990s.

  “If she had married Mr. Collins, that would have been handing over her consent to him... he would be doing something he was legally allowed to do. But it’s not a situation you want to be in as the other party…” – Zoë McGee [15:16]

Richardson’s Clarissa

• Richardson’s Clarissa is central to academic discussions of consent because it dramatizes the constraints of legal definitions and the role of victim-blaming. Lovelace, the villain, rapes Clarissa after drugging her, making her inability to ‘resist’ a pointed critique of the period’s laws.
  “For something to be classed as rape, you have to have resisted with all your strength... Clarissa’s been drugged, so she’s unconscious, and she can’t resist.” – Zoë McGee [17:52]

• Richardson was exasperated by readers’ fascination with Lovelace and resistance to his condemnation.

  “He went back and edited the manuscript... to be like, this man is not a good man. We do not want to redeem him.” – Zoë McGee [21:17]

• The double standard of demanding women be perfect “victims” recurs in modern narratives about violence against women.

  “You don’t have to be a model to suffer. You know, you’re not more harmable the more perfect you are.” – Zoë McGee [22:31]

4. Social and Legal Contexts

• Zoë’s research included analysis of 18th-century court records from the Old Bailey. Findings revealed:

  • Extremely low rates of rape prosecution and conviction (24 convictions for rape in 50 years; 284 murder convictions in the same time span).
  • Most rape cases that succeeded in court involved children (below the age of consent) or extreme physical violence—drawing a clear link between societal conceptions of harm and legal recognition.
  • Women of higher status rarely used the courts, as the damage to their social and economic position would outweigh any ‘justice’ the courts could provide.
  • The cases underscore how the blame for violence was often placed on the victim’s behavior or status.

  “You'd be in this room full of people... a lot of the medical exams were brutal and re-traumatizing. And so you’re not going to do it unless you think there’s a chance that you’ll win.” – Zoë McGee [49:52]

5. Systemic Patriarchy and Marriage as Transfer of Agency

• Marriage at the time was likened to “electing a monarch for life” (Mary Astell)—a loss of legal identity for women.
• Marriage functioned as a form of trade, often forced, involving property, social mobility, or debt payment.
• Parental control and social norms left women with the illusion of choice rather than real autonomy. “You’re conferring the legal right to hurt you to somebody… Married women couldn't bring a case to court, so they didn’t exist as individuals in the eyes of the law.” – Zoë McGee [31:20]

6. The Danger of Romanticizing the Regency

• Jacke and Zoë discuss the risks of idealizing the “simpler” past as depicted in Austen adaptations—ignoring the restrictions, lack of agency, discomfort, and peril most people (especially women) faced.

  “If we were in Jane Austen’s time, we wouldn’t be those people… Even Austen’s heroines are not all hugely wealthy… Lizzie and Elmer, they’re bored a lot of the time.” – Zoë McGee [57:04, 58:03]

• The fantasy of marrying a “Darcy” masks the underlying social fragility for women:
  “You don’t want to be in a position where you’re dependent for safety, if not even happiness, on finding the Darcy in a sea of Collinses.” – Zoë McGee [60:46]

• The idealization also overlooks the strict social rules, the lack of autonomy, and the constant policing of women’s behavior.

  “A lot of the behavior that women were supposed to exhibit... it's all coded as being consenting… It kind of gets thorny when you want to disagree with someone or when you want to say no. And I think we still do that, to be honest.” – Zoë McGee [62:48]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On why Mr. Collins’s ‘proposal’ endures as a disturbing scene:
  “It is unbelievable how many times she has to tell him no, and in such different ways and with increasing agitation and directness and still he refuses.” – Jacke Wilson [13:07]

• On societal victim-blaming:
  “You can’t be complicit in your own murder. You can’t ask for an assault… The only person who can make the choice as to whether someone is attacked or not, is the person attacking them.” – Zoë McGee [22:30]

• On Regency fantasy:
  “Here is something where you see beautiful people. They don’t have to work, they've got money. I mean, that's… a significant part of the fantasy.” – Zoë McGee [57:04]

Key Timestamps

• 03:45 – [Zoë’s First 18th-Century Novel]
• 07:51 – [The “miscellaneous” 18th-century literary scene; rise of novels and women as readers/writers]
• 09:44 – [Modern consent workshops and Mr. Collins’ proposal]
• 13:07 – [Host’s reaction: reading the Collins scene through today’s lens]
• 17:26 – [Clarissa as a touchstone novel for consent]
• 21:17 – [Richardson’s struggle with readers’ misreading of Lovelace]
• 31:20 – [Legal and economic realities for married women]
• 45:09 – [Research with Old Bailey court records]
• 49:17 – [Elites avoid the courts; most cases involve young, working-class women]
• 56:06 – [Modern romanticization of Regency; costs of nostalgic wishfulness]
• 60:46 – [Dangers of depending on ‘finding a Darcy’ for safety or happiness]
• 62:48 – [“Pleasantness” as code for female accommodation]
• 64:04 – [Closing thanks and wrap-up]

Further Reading

• Courting: Reading Between the Lines of the Regency Novel by Zoë McGee
• Old Bailey Proceedings: oldbaileyonline.org

This episode paints a nuanced picture of literary history, probing the intersection of gender, law, and narrative, and offering a reminder of both progress made and challenges yet to overcome in the representation and reality of consent.