The Annotated Northanger Abbey

by Jane Austen

  31. Salisbury is the principal town in Mrs. Allen and Catherine’s home county of Wiltshire.

  32. There were books and milestones providing precise distances for routes along roads; for more, see note 22.

  33. fag: fatigue; thing that causes weariness. On main roads, nine miles would take a little more than an hour each way, but rougher, rural roads, such as those near the village of Fullerton, would add to that time. Carriage rides could be uncomfortable, especially over rural roads.

  34. coloured: blushed.

  35. Mr. Tilney’s description has an ironic twist, for Catherine reveals herself over the course of the novel to be the exact opposite of artful and deep.

  36. Wine was often mixed with water then.

  37. As Austen’s footnote indicates, this sentiment was expressed by Samuel Richardson, one of the leading novelists of the eighteenth century, in an essay in The Rambler, a journal published by Samuel Johnson (Johnson wrote most of the essays, but sometimes accepted contributions). Richardson’s exact words are: “That a young lady should be in love, and the love of the young gentleman undeclared, is an heterodoxy which prudence, and even policy, must not allow.” Many conduct books, a popular literary genre of the time offering general moral advice to young people, made a similar argument, warning young women to be guarded both in their behavior and in their affections toward men, due to the unscrupulous or fickle men who might profess more love than they really felt and the terrible harm a woman could suffer if she allowed herself to be beguiled by these declarations.

  Richardson was one of the principal influences on Jane Austen’s own novel writing; his third and last novel, Sir Charles Grandison, was a particular favorite of hers. But even as she appreciated some of his qualities, such as his penetrating exploration of human psychology, his often vividly realistic dialogues, and his engagement with profound moral issues, she rejects other elements, including his frequently overt didacticism. The main characters of both Sir Charles Grandison and Richardson’s previous novel, Clarissa, are held up explicitly by their narrators as models of human behavior, and are sometimes used as sententious mouthpieces for the author’s moralizing. In contrast, Austen mostly conveys her moral messages through plot outcomes or nuanced descriptions, and her commitment to realism means she does not shy from showing normal human frailties in all her heroines.

  38. Mr. Allen is probably thinking at least of the possibility of romance between Mr. Tilney and Catherine. Such thoughts arose quickly when it came to young, unmarried people of opposite genders, a product of the strong emphasis placed on marriage in this society. Mr. Allen, by investigating the stranger’s background, is also acting properly in his role as Catherine’s guardian while she is in Bath, for this role would include ensuring that one’s charge associated only with suitable people.

  39. Being a member of the clergy was one of the most common genteel occupations for men; Catherine’s father has already been described as one.

  40. Gloucestershire is a county immediately north of Bath (see this map).

  VOLUME I, CHAPTER IV

  1. A prominent feature of the Pump Room had long been a nine-foot-tall clock created by noted clockmaker Thomas Tompion. He donated the clock in 1709, possibly from gratitude at the health benefits he believed he had received from a stay in Bath. The clock has remained in the room ever since; see picture below.

  2. These lines are from a couplet in a popular schoolbook, Thomas Dyche’s Guide to the English Tongue, that went through numerous editions over the course of the eighteenth century. The actual lines are “Despair of nothing that you would attain / Unwearied diligence your point will gain.”

  The Pump Room; the clock is in the center of the alcove at the back.

  [From Ninety-Six Fine Art Photographs of Bath and District (London, 1898–?)]

  [List of Illustrations]

  3. intelligence: information.

  4. views: expectations.

  5. Oxford and Cambridge were the only universities in England at this time. Merchant Taylors’ was (and remains) a grammar, or secondary, school in London. “At sea” means being in the navy; boys pursuing naval careers usually commenced serving on ships between the ages of eleven and twelve, which is why William can be last on the list (Mrs. Thorpe has almost certainly mentioned her sons in order of age, for current custom dictated giving priority to one’s children by birth order).

  6. A pelisse was a popular outdoor coat for women; Jane Austen refers to them frequently in her letters (see picture below). At this time a pelisse extended down to the knees, but it would become a full-length coat during the following decade. Mrs. Thorpe is probably wearing hers because the size of the Pump Room and the constant entering and exiting of visitors would make the space difficult to keep warm with fireplaces. Many articles of clothing then had lace on them.

  7. Catherine’s brother is called “Mr. James Morland” here to distinguish him from his father, who would be simply “Mr. Morland.”

  Contemporary picture of women playing hide-and-seek; the one in the center is wearing a pelisse.

  [From Max von Boehn, Modes & Manners of the Nineteenth Century, Vol. I (London, 1909), p. 103]

  [List of Illustrations]

  8. The college would be one at Oxford. His stay at the Thorpes’ would have been very recent, for in 1803 the Oxford winter term, which would follow Christmas vacation, began on January 14.

  9. Taking a turn means walking around the room; in Pride and Prejudice the heroine is also asked if she wishes to take such a turn. It was common procedure in the Pump Room. A guidebook of 1804 declares of that room that “a numerous assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, walking up and down in social converse, presents a picture of animation which nothing can exceed” (John Feltham, A Guide to All the Watering and Sea-Bathing Places).

  10. This is the sort of moralistic aside often found in novels of the time, mocked here by applying it to such limited examples of love and friendship.

  11. quizzes: odd or eccentric persons.

  12. While Isabella, as the eldest Thorpe daughter, can be called simply “Miss Thorpe,” her younger sisters would have their first name placed after the “Miss.” This is similar to the convention used for men, with the difference that daughters would not need to be distinguished from their mother due to the latter being “Mrs.”

  13. Tunbridge Wells was another leading spa town, named for its wells supplying mineral water. It lay only forty miles south of London—as opposed to Bath’s 120-mile distance to the west—and this proximity aided its popularity despite its limited bathing facilities (see this map); it is also probably why the Thorpes, who live near London, have visited it. Tunbridge actually complemented Bath, because its high season was the summer, the least popular time at Bath.

  14. articles: details, particulars.

  15. Since few other families of her social level are mentioned as living in her neighborhood, aside from the childless Allens, Catherine may never have had a close friend. This, combined with the fact that her sisters are all younger than her, could lead to her being easily awed and entranced by the attentions of Miss Thorpe.

  16. Shaking hands was not a routine greeting then, but a gesture signifying particular closeness, used only for relatives or good friends.

  17. The theater was the principal entertainment at Bath on Saturday evenings; see also note 10. The previous night’s encounter with Mr. Tilney was on a Friday.

  18. “Chapel” was used for a less important or smaller church. Contemporary guides to Bath mention a number of chapels as well as churches. Regular Sunday attendance at church was standard for everyone in this society; Jane Austen herself, like many people, often attended two services on a single Sunday.

  19. detail: detailed account.

  20. Numerous novels of the time, even the best ones, would interrupt their main story to provide such long background tales.

  21. Mediocre novelists frequently interpolated such didactic passages in their stories. These passages, o
ften lengthy, could impart general moral lessons or sermonize on specific religious or political issues. Many commentators praised novels for this extra element, arguing that it raised a work above the level of mere entertainment. Later in Jane Austen’s life, after she had become a well-established writer, she was pressed with suggestions for a novel in which, among other things, she should reveal “what good would be done if Tythes were taken away entirely” (a current political issue). She responded with a short “Plan of a Novel” that ridicules these suggestions as well as many fictional conventions; in it, the heroine’s father, “finding his end approaching, throws himself on the Ground, & after 4 or 5 hours of tender advice & parental Admonition to his miserable Child, expires in a fine burst of Literary Enthusiasm, intermingled with Invectives against Holders of Tythes.”

  Lords and attorneys would be appropriate targets for these sorts of denunciations. Both played villainous roles in many novels, the former because of the power for ill conferred by their position, and the latter because they could help engineer legal machinations that could bring misery to the protagonists. Moreover, both were sometimes objects of dislike—aristocrats because of a growing democratic sentiment during this period, and attorneys because of a long-standing distrust of lawyers.

  22. Such detailed representation of past conversations and events was a basic literary device of these background stories, despite its patent unrealism; it was particularly common in epistolary novels of the time, which had to relate all events through the characters’ memories.

  VOLUME I, CHAPTER V

  1. Catherine and Miss Thorpe can easily see each other because the audience portion of a playhouse would be lit throughout the performance. The weakness of lamps and candles made such general illumination necessary in order to render the stage fully visible.

  2. Theaters usually contained several tiers of boxes on each side of the hall, and sometimes in the rear as well. In grander playhouses, between one-half and one-third of all seats were in boxes. More affluent customers, such as the characters in this novel, would almost certainly use them; in Persuasion characters visiting Bath reserve a box for the theater. The existence of multiple rows of boxes, along with the partitions on each side of a box, means Catherine can see into only some of them; see this illustration.

  3. The Crescent, or Royal Crescent, is probably the most renowned landmark in Bath. It is a long arc of attached town houses, all in the same grand classical style, set atop an open hill (for a picture, see this page). It was built from 1767 to 1775 by John Wood the Younger, who together with his father designed much of eighteenth-century Bath. The grandeur of this crescent inspired the subsequent creation of others; one, Camden Crescent, is the Bath residence of Anne Elliot, the heroine of Persuasion. The Royal Crescent was also the prime outdoor social venue in Bath, popular for promenading, thanks to its architecture, the spectacular views provided by its elevated position, and the open grassy area in front of the buildings.

  4. lounges: strolls.

  5. “Dressed” balls had a stricter dress code than “undressed” ones. The former would feature only English country dances, the most popular type of dances; the latter began with two cotillions (French-derived dances) before switching to country dances (for more on these dances, see note 23, and note 44). Both the Upper and the Lower Rooms had one dressed ball and one undressed ball each week.

  6. Bath’s upper crust formed a relatively small society, which gives Catherine a reasonable expectation of seeing someone who is in town. The city’s total population, according to the 1801 census, was approximately 33,000; to this one might add numerous visitors, but from this one should also subtract the great majority of residents, who were not wealthy enough to frequent the places of leisure that Catherine searches.

  7. “Horsemen” here means men on horseback; curricle drivers would be men driving a curricle, a type of open carriage that was fashionable at the time (for a brief description, see note 31).

  8. The Pump Room, because of its centrality to Bath social life, contained the “book of intelligence,” in which new arrivals to Bath were expected to write their names. If Mr. Tilney was stopping in Bath only briefly, he might not have bothered to enter his name.

  9. Many novels were full of mysteries concerning the main characters, and it would be expected that a man who arouses a heroine’s romantic interest would be a prominent source of mystery. One common device was to have such a man’s identity turn out to be different from what it first appeared.

  10. finesse: cunning or subtle stratagems.

  11. The idea is that a young woman, always on the lookout for love, should tease her friend about any potential paramours and force her to reveal her secret. Both of these procedures would violate basic principles of politeness, but Isabella seems to be hinting that Catherine should press her—hints that Catherine, so open and artless herself, fails to perceive. Isabella’s meaning is nonetheless soon revealed, at least to the reader.

  12. This rapid advance of friendship reflects in part Catherine’s previous social isolation. It also helps make her and Isabella more like typical novel heroines of the time, who would often experience such instant intimacy. In Jane Austen’s early satire of sentimental fiction, Love and Friendship, the main character relates how, immediately after meeting another woman, “We flew into each others arms and after having exchanged vows of mutual Freindship [sic] for the rest of our Lives, instantly unfolded to each other the most inward Secrets of our Hearts.” Isabella will frequently speak in similar sentimental fashion, concerning friendship as well as other matters.

  The old Bath theater, with boxes on the sides; soon after this novel was finished, it was torn down and replaced with a new theater.

  [From Mowbray Aston Green, The Eighteenth Century Architecture of Bath (Bath, 1904), p. 214]

  [List of Illustrations]

  13. Current etiquette precluded use of Christian, or first, names except for people who were relations or close friends.

  14. Women’s gowns, especially evening gowns, often had trains. Since the trains could interfere with dancing, pinning them up would be a useful step.

  15. Dances were organized into sets, in which a line of women would face a line of men. Catherine and Isabella are ensuring they are always next to each other in the line.

  16. Novels had emerged as a distinct literary form during the eighteenth century, and had grown tremendously in popularity as the century progressed, while also arousing frequent condemnation. Some critics dismissed them as a waste of time, a charge often extended to any reading done for pure amusement. Others focused on the poor quality of many novels and the consequent intellectual degradation they would foster; this objection grew especially in the later eighteenth century because of the poor quality of most novels then compared to some of the noted works of the mid-eighteenth century. Another line of attack focused on the moral dangers of novels. The form was accused of inspiring excessive emotion and fancifulness and, due to its focus on romance, of arousing dangerous sexual passions. These concerns applied especially to young women, whose particular love of novels was widely acknowledged, whose tendency toward excessive fancy and passion was believed especially strong, and whose maintenance of sexual virtue was considered absolutely imperative. Denunciation of novels, with exception sometimes made for a few better ones, is standard in almost all female conduct books of the time, even as they praise other types of books and call for women to be well read.

  These attitudes surfaced in many fictional works as well. In Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s popular play, The Rivals (1775), the protagonist is forced to hide a novel she is reading from the father of her betrothed, whose hatred of such books leads him to call circulating libraries, leading purveyors of novels, “evergreen trees of diabolical knowledge.” As for the characters in novels themselves: “In general, heroines do not read novels except as a prelude to seduction” (J. M. S. Tompkins, The Popular Novel in England, 1770–1800, pp. 3–4). It is such self-condemnation by fe
llow novelists that Jane Austen laments here. Her awareness of these attitudes also appears in a letter discussing a subscription to a local library, in which she writes, “As an inducement to subscribe Mrs. Martin tells us that her Collection is not to consist only of Novels, but of every kind of Literature, &c. &c—She might have spared this pretension to our family, who are great Novel-readers & not ashamed of being so;—but it was necessary I suppose to the self-consequence of half her Subscribers” (Dec. 18, 1798). Austen raises the issue as well in Pride and Prejudice, when she has a foolish and pompous clergyman declare that he never reads novels.

  17. Book reviews had become a significant part of the literary scene in the later eighteenth century, appearing in a variety of literary journals. Jane Austen’s novels would themselves be reviewed, mostly favorably, in some of these journals. Reviewers were frequently contemptuous and dismissive toward novels, and were in turn sometimes castigated for this attitude—though during the 1790s, perhaps responding to such criticisms, they became less harsh.

  18. injured: maligned.

  19. afforded: provided.

  20. By “corporation” Austen means simply a group of people. There was no formal legal entity, public or private, into which writers of any type were organized.

  21. Oliver Goldsmith was one of the most popular writers of the eighteenth century, author of plays, poetry, essays, and a novel. He also wrote a four-volume History of England that became a bestseller. It was subject to frequent abridgment, first by Goldsmith himself and then by a succession of other writers; one reason was that the text was widely used for schoolchildren. When she was young, Jane Austen wrote a parody of Goldsmith’s History, her only attempt at nonfiction.

  22. John Milton was the leading poet of the seventeenth century, and Alexander Pope, quoted on this page above, the leading one of the eighteenth. Matthew Prior was an early-eighteenth-century poet; one of his well-known works, “Henry and Emma,” is alluded to in Persuasion. Poetry enjoyed much greater prestige than novels. It was widely read and was considered an important part of education, for both men and women.