Tales of ‘Stuffing it’ Austen, ‘Eye-opener’ Dickens and ‘Banana’ Waugh

I suspect gluttony, the excessive consumption of food and drink, was the first of the deadly sins to be committed. The least glamorous of them too. It is universal today, to judge by the number of fatties and the stomach-heaving coverage of food, restaurants, chefs and booze in the media. Ugh! It was always thus. The Bible devotes a lot of space to gulosity in general, let alone the excesses of Lot, Belchezzar, Herod and other esurient characters, killing fatted calves, selling birthright for pottage and glaring examples of edacity.

Gluttony is particularly objectionable in women, both in the act and the consequences. Queen Mary, wife of William III, was a notable chowhound and was said to be able to toss down a quart-pot of beer without pausing for breath. Byron avoided dining in mixed company if possible, as he could not abide watching women eat, ‘except it be a lobster salad’. But then he was squeamish about food, quite apart from his banting, often contenting himself with cold boiled potatoes soused in vinegar. One reason he kicked out Leigh Hunt was that he found his gobbling wife insupportable. Charles Lamb did not like her either. He did not enjoy women writers in general. So many were greedy. He himself had a discerning appetite, with a partiality for Cambridge brawn, and wrote on the subject of food with zest, but he could not bear a pantophagist. Was George Eliot a secret pantry-raider? Her shape and solidity attracted the beady notice of Jane Carlyle. There were some outstanding chompers among lady novelists. Dorothy Sayers is said to have literally eaten herself to death.

Jane Austen was certainly not greedy, but nor was she indifferent to food. There is a surprising amount about it in her novels. Maggie Lane devoted an entire book to it, Jane Austen and Food; an excellent read it is too.