In the early 1800s, Britain was at war with nearly everyone: the French, Americans, Spanish, and Irish. Conflicts raged across Africa, India, and Sri Lanka. There was hardly a country the British weren’t attacking. The battles most embedded in the national psyche were those of the Napoleonic Wars. Austen’s newspapers were filled with dispatches from the front and accounts of individual acts of courage. Many of her male characters had military connections.

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Regency Army and Navy recruitment posters were aimed almost exclusively at men. But in researching for the Pride and Prejudice Novel Magazine, we uncovered stories of the women who fought. Sharing these stories, and placing them within a recruitment context that used shame as its lever, reflects a long-established tactic. One of the best-known examples appears in A. E. W. Mason’s 1902 novel The Four Feathers. (Some scenes in the 1939 film adaptation now make for uneasy viewing.)

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Mary Dixon
Mary Dixon fought at the Battle of Waterloo. Her specific actions weren’t recorded, but we chose to imagine her in the thick of it: present, visible, and engaged.

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The imagery falls short of historical precision, but the tone it captures feels right. It blends the atmosphere of an 18th-century war story with a 21st-century reinterpretation, perfectly suited to the world of this magazine.

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Check out our Navy Recruitment advert here.