by Jane Austen
—from Little Journeys to the Homes of Famous Women ( 1897)
William Lyon Phelps
Northanger Abbey bears the marks of youth. It is a burlesque, and has the virtues and defects of that species. As an example of what Jane thought of the Mysteries of Udolpho, and of the whole school of blood and thunder, it is highly important; it contains also many remarks on novels and novel-reading which are valuable as showing how Jane Austen regarded her art. But it is not equal to such a work as Mansfield Park; it lacks variety and subtlety. The narration of the heroine’s finding the washing-bill in the old Abbey is pure fun, youthful mirth, and the description of the face and figure of the young girl is no more nor less than satire on the popular heroines of the day. Historically, however, the book is of the deepest significance; for it marks a turning-point in the history of the English novel, and it tells us more of its author’s personal views than all the rest of her tales put together. It is more subjective; in the fifth chapter there is an almost passionate defence of the novel against its detractors, who regarded such writing as merely superficial and lacking in serious artistic purpose; while in the sixth chapter, Sir Charles Grandison is favourably compared with the romances of Mrs. Radcliffe and her ilk. Such a work, written in the very bloom of youth, is conclusive evidence of the self-conscious purpose of its author; it proves that she knew exactly what she wanted; that her purpose in art was definite, and unalterable. In Northanger Abbey she showed how novels ought not to be written; her other books are illustrations of what she conceived to be the true theory.
—from Essays on Books (1914)
G. K. Chesterton
Jane Austen was not inflamed or inspired or even moved to be a genius; she simply was a genius. Her fire, what there was of it, began with herself; like the fire of the first man who rubbed two dry sticks together. Some would say that they were very dry sticks which she rubbed together. It is certain that she by her own artistic talent made interesting what thousands of superficially similar people would have made dull. There was nothing in her circumstances, or even in her materials, that seems obviously meant for the making of such an artist. It might seem a very wild use of the wrong word to say that Jane Austen was elemental.
—from his preface to Austen’s Love and Freindship [sic]
and Other Early Works ( 1922 )
QUESTIONS
1. Is it possible to formulate what Catherine has learned by the end of the novel? Try to explain it in just a couple of sentences.
2. Is there any sign that any of the characters in Northanger Abbey feels sexual desire? Can Austen’s realism be considered complete without this aspect of human relationships?
3. There is more than one kind of humor. Mark Twain and Bill Cosby are both funny, but in different ways. Describe Jane Austen’s humor. Is it verbal, situational, cosmic? What are the occasions for her humor—social gaffs, misuse of words, stupidity, absurd desires, impropriety, misunderstanding, lack of self-knowledge? Is her humor meant to correct or chastise; does it have a higher purpose? Or is it just for our amusement?
4. What, besides money, is required for Jane Austen’s country gentry to survive? Could you survive in this milieu? Could any completely honest person?
For Further Reading
BIOGRAPHIES
Tomalin, Claire. Jane Austen: A Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
CRITICISM
Bloom, Harold, ed. Jane Austen. Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
Burlin, Katrin Ristkok. “ ‘The Pen of the Contriver’: The Four Fictions of Northanger Abbey.” In Jane Austen: Bicentenary Essays, edited by John Halperin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Butler, Marylin. Jane Austen and the War of Ideas. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
Byrde, Penelope. Jane Austen Fashion: Fashion and Needlework in the Works of Jane Austen. Ludlow, UK: Excellent Press, 1999.
Copeland, Edward, and McMaster, Juliet, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Dabundo, Laura, ed. Jane Austen and Mary Shelley, and Their Sisters. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000.
Doody, Margaret Anne, and Douglas Murray, eds. Catharine and Other Writings, by Jane Austen. With an introduction by Margaret Anne Doody. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Fergus, Jan S. Jane Austen and the Didactic Novel: Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice. London: Macmillan, 1983.
Le Faye, Deirdre. Jane Austen’s Letters. Third edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
McMaster, Juliet and Bruce Stovel, eds. Jane Austen’s Business: Her World and Her Profession. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
McMaster, Juliet. Jane Austen the Novelist: Essays Past and Present. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan Press, 1996.
Miller, D. A. Jane Austen, or the Secret of Style. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.
Poovey, Mary. The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Powell, Violet Georgiana, Lady. A Jane Austen Compendium: The Six Major Novels. London: Heinemann, 1993.
Tanner, Tony. Jane Austen. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.
Waldron, Mary. Jane Austen and the Fiction of Her Time. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Wright, Andrew H. Jane Austen’s Novels: A Study in Structure. London: Chatto and Windus, 1953.
a Private fortune or source of income.
b Benefices; church offices that pay revenue.
c More commonly spelled “spinet”; a harpsichord or small piano.
d Giving birth and recovering.
e An early version of the modern game.
f Child under his protection or custody.
g Member of the gentry below a knight and above a gentleman; the principal landowner in a district.
h Imaginary village in a real county in southern England.
i City in Somerset, in southwestern England on the River Avon; a spa town famous since Roman times for its medicinal waters.
j Tendency toward gout, whose main symptom is painful inflammation in the joints. The waters at Bath were thought to relieve the condition.
k English coins issued from 1663 to 1813; after 1717 their value was fixed at 21 shillings (one pound plus one shilling).
l Or Great Pulteney Street, a major thoroughfare running west to Pulteney Bridge. From there, Catherine Morland could easily reach virtually any important place in Bath.
m Reputation. ‡ Well dressed.
n Or Upper Assembly Rooms; on Alfred Street, where visitors to Bath went to see and be seen. Catherine Morland would cross Pulteney Bridge and turn right or north to reach the Upper Rooms.
o Free of criticism.
p That is, tourists packed the city.
q At the far end, where tiers of benches overlook the dance floor.
r Plumes in hats.
s Cotton fabric.
t Elegant building that includes both facilities for social gatherings and the spa fountain, where visitors acquire the medicinal water.
u Or Lower Assembly Rooms; near Terrace Walk, another gathering place. Catherine Morland would cross Pulteney Bridge and turn left or south to reach the Lower Rooms.
v Way of bearing himself.
w Mischievous irony.
x Honored with your presence.
y Marked with a sprig (leaf or small flower) design.
z Periods.
aa Scarves worn around the neck; neckties.
ab City in Wiltshire (southern England) on the River Avon; site of a celebrated cathedral.
ac Exhausting journey.
ad County in southwestern England.
ae Affability.
af Oxford University, one of the principal English seats of higher learning.
ag London school founded by the Merchant Taylors’ Company i
n 1561.
ah Lightweight cloak.
ai Eccentric or teasing men.
aj Royal Tunbridge Wells, a town in Kent (southeastern England).
ak Or Royal Crescent; townhouses near the Upper Assembly Rooms that faced a park.
al Formal or informal.
am Drivers of two-wheeled, two-horse carriages.
an Mild teasing.
ao Secured the long hem of each others’ dresses so they would not drag on the floor and impede dancing.
ap The basic formation in the dance.
aq Fictions that focus on personality rather than melodrama (romance) or humor (satire) but can contain elements of both.
ar Genuine.
as Hypocritical use of conventional concepts.
at Feigned.
au Orange-red.
av Small notebook.
aw Open-mesh weaving.
ax On George Street, a short distance from the Upper Assembly Rooms.
ay Catherine Morland and Isabella Thorpe are in the vicinity of the various pump rooms on Stall Street. They are going toward the buildings called Union Passage (on Union Street) and must cross the heavily trafficked Cheap Street (which intersects with High Street, one of the entries to the London Road). They are heading straight toward Edgar’s Buildings.
az Hats.
ba Reined in.
bb Respects.
bc Bow while drawing back one foot along the ground.
bd Familiar.
be Given a sign of distress.
bf Part of the horse in front of the rider.
bg Gig: a lightly framed two-wheeled, one-horse carriage; town built: made in London.
bh One of the colleges of Oxford University.
bi Suspended by a pole, rather than a shaft, like the open two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage known as a curricle.
bj Or splash-board: a panel to protect against splashes.
bk North-south street that connects to Union Street and leads directly to the Edgar’s or Edgar Buildings.
bl Another Oxford University college.
bm Just northwest of Pulteney Bridge; the hill, which overlooks Bath, was the scene of a 1643 battle in the first English Civil War.
bn That’s a promise.
bo Bizarre specimen.
bp Tedious chatterbox.
bq Muff: a cylinder-shaped hand-warmer made of fur or cloth; tippet: in this case, a shoulder cape, also of fur or cloth, with hanging ends.
br One of four rooms of the Upper Assembly Rooms, it connects the Ball Room (which held 1,200 people), the Tea or Concert Room, and the Card Room.
bs That is, when you men want to have your way, you stop at nothing.
bt In an uproar.
bu Tease.
bv First-rate.
bw East of Bath; current site of the University of Bath. ‡ Fuss.
bx Susceptible to gout. John Thorpe assumes Mr. Allan’s gout derives from drinking.
by Drunk.
bz Rickety.
ca Sincere but naive.
cb Embroidered.
cc Mull: sheer cotton; jackonet. thin, soft muslin.
cd Give us moral support.
ce Ridden or broken to the saddle.
cf Desire to please.
cg Lavender-scented toilet water.
ch Two weeks‘.
ci Chair, often covered, carried on poles by two men; the usual means whereby people of Catherine Morland’s class would travel to social events, especially balls.
cj Heavy overcoat made of wool, often with a short, layered cape attached.
ck Suburb of Bristol on the River Avon, known for its hot springs.
cl Kingsweston and Blaize (or Blaise) Castle are sites west of Bath, near Bristol. Blaise Castle, built in 1766, is actually a private summer house, so Catherine’s longing for medieval gloom would have been frustrated.
cm North of Pulteney Bridge, toward the Upper Assembly Rooms.
cn Doorless, four-wheeled carriage with one or two seats.
co Northward extension of Broad Street.
cp Fine-looking horses.
cq Picturesque site reached by following Lansdown Road.
cr Square between Great Pulteney Street and Pulteney Bridge.
cs Tapestries concealing secret passages.
ct On Argyle Street, which connects Laura Place with Pulteney Bridge
cu Northwest of Bath.
cv A jade is a broken-down horse afflicted with emphysema.
cw House servant who does chores and errands.
cx Isabella derives satisfaction from spending time with James Morland rather than at a country inn; the expression derives from a card game, “commerce,” based on exchanges and deal-making.
cy They are playing cards, a common amusement during the period.
cz North from the Great Pump Room, leading to the Edgar Buildings.
da Nearby.
db Rumple.
dc Met him ages ago at the Bedford (possibly the coffee house, in London).
dd That is, the early afternoon.
de Between the Royal Crescent and the Circus, northwest of Milsom Street.
df Not proper.
dg Improper nature of unmarried couples riding in open carriages together.
dh South of Bath, across the Avon.
di Grove of small trees.
dj Henry Tilney plays with the expression Catherine has acquired from Isabella Thorpe, but uses “amazement” to mean “bewilderment”: It would be bewildering or shocking that young men hate novels because they read as many as women read.
dk Decorative needlework with letters or verses embroidered in various kinds of stitches to show skill.
dl Henry Tilney again teases Catherine about language. “Nice” can mean neat, proper, or well-executed, as in “a nicely bound book.”
dm Elaborate public praise.
dn View in nature that resembles a painting; a key element in the late-eighteenth-century rediscovery of nature.
do Terms derived from art technique: fore-grounds. those nearest the spectator; distances, and second distances: those farther away; side-screens: the use of lateral objects to focus the viewer’s eye; perspectives: the organization of pictorial space using the viewer’s eye as a point of view.
dp Or enclosure; the division of public or common land into personal property using physical barriers, such as ditches or fences. The inclosure movement in England began in the twelfth century and increased rapidly during the period 1750 to 1800.
dq Land owned by the monarch.
dr Book size, with pages of about 5 by 7 1/2 inches; novels during this period were usually three or four volumes in duodecimo.
ds Lending library, where patrons paid a small fee to borrow books.
dt London sites.
du Hard object such as a brick used as a missile.
dv Room where guests are entertained.
dw Requested, ordered.
dx Probably souvenirs; spars are ornaments made from crystalline minerals.
dy Flavored crushed ice or sherbet.
dz Clever or slyly alert.
ea Or sarcenet: dark, red, thin silk.
eb London suburb. Isabella coyly says she would rather live in a London suburb than in the city.
ec Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, interjections, prepositions, conjunctions, and pronouns.
ed Whether ownership of land or buildings was to be signed over.
ee Whether money held in funds or government bonds was to be signed over.
ef Settlement in terms of a house and income.
