Unlike modern-day literature, in which sexuality is portrayed with overt directness (hello, 鈥�50 Shades of Grey鈥�!), writers like Austen, who almost certainly died a virgin, veiled sexual references such that audiences were forced to read between the lines. But the prim-and-proper 鈥淧ride and Prejudice鈥� is, in fact, replete with sexual references, including the arrival of army officers, whose tight-fitting costumes were almost synonymous with sexual appeal and dalliance. When Darcy tells Elizabeth 鈥渕y feelings will not be repressed,鈥� the depth of his emotions were understood by readers of the time.
