Epilogue: The Afterlife of Muffs

Abstract

In the epilogue, I turn to Hugh Thomson’s illustrated edition of Sense and Sensibility (1902), which features images of each of the primary female characters (Elinor, Marianne, and Lucy) holding muffs. I read these images alongside an entry from the “Ladies Encyclopedia” from 1910 entitled “On Muffs.” Curiously, the afterlife of the muff- its visual translation into editions of Austen’s novels — provides some insight into how readers were directed to conjure representations of the fashionable eighteenth-century past. As accessible and useful accessories, Muffs at the beginning of the twentieth century offered the potential for a more democratic vision of style, one in which every woman could have the opportunity to present themselves as fashionable.