New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817)

Jane Austen

Jane Austen (born December 16, 1775, Steventon, Hampshire, England—died July 18, 1817, Winchester, Hampshire) was an English writer who first gave the novel its distinctly modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life. She published four novels during her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). In these and in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (published together posthumously, 1817), she vividly depicted English middle-class life during the early 19th century. Her novels defined the era’s novel of manners, but they also became timeless classics that remained critical and popular successes for over two centuries after her death. These works reflect her enduring legacy. (From Britannica.com)

Northanger Abbey Discussion Questions

Catherine Morland is clearly a suggestible reader, but her gullibility extends beyond books into the real world. Is the tendency to think the best of people a trait you admire? Is it a trait you have?

The one character about whom Catherine is inclined to think the worst is General Tilney. Why is this? She is humiliated when Henry realizes how her imagination has run away with her, but how mistaken is she really regarding his general character? Are her powers of imagination more reliable than her powers of observation?

Henry Tilney tells Catherine that his father was attached to his mother and greatly afflicted by her death. Do you believe him?

Of his father, Henry says that, given his temperament, “he loved . . .as well as it was possible for him to.” How well do you imagine it will be possible for Henry to love? Affectionately? Passionately? Steadfastly?

Why does he choose Catherine and how much in love with her is he?

Hidden within Austen’s satire on gothic novels is Eleanor Tilney’s story. Eleanor has a dead mother, an overbearing father, and ends up married to a viscount. Imagine the book if Austen had chosen Eleanor as the heroine. Would it have been a gothic novel?

Northanger Abbey is a book about reading. Much of the plot has to do with the folly of confusing one’s own life with the stuff of fictional adventure. But the book also contains a famous Austen defense of novels and novelists, particularly those read and written by women.

We are told immediately that Catherine does not object to books so long as “nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them” and they are “all story and no reflection.” Escapist fiction continues, in our day, to have a bad reputation. Is that reputation deserved?

Austen flatters the reader of Northanger Abbey by allowing him/her to see and understand things the heroine does not. It’s fun for readers to find that they are smarter than the people in books. Have you read books in which you felt you were smarter than the author? Is that also fun? Is it possible to like a book if it makes you feel you’re not quite smart enough to read it?

What is the role of fiction in your own life? Why do you read it and what do you want from it?

(Questions from Penguinrandomhouse.com)

Easy Reader

Pumpkins