Desperate Walkers: The walks, walkers, and walking verbs in Jane Austen’s novels

There are many walks and walkers to be found in Jane Austen's six published novels, and these have attracted some scholarly attention. My research, positioned at the border of linguistics and literature, investigates these walks and walkers by looking at the precise verbs Austen used. My conclusion is that Austen consciously chose certain walking verbs to shape the characters in her novels, and similarly used the social functions and privacy of walks to move the plots of her novels forward. As such, walking is essential to understanding both her characters and the plots. Finally, this shows how Austen's novels do promote walking for the, especially female, reader, in a time when this activity became more widely accepted as a pleasurable pastime.