[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Introduction ” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ text_font=”Playfair Display||||” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n
Northanger Abbey\u00a0<\/em>follows the story of Catherine Morland, a young English country girl, on her travels to Bath and the titular Northanger Abbey. The satirical storyline emerges early in the novel, even in the opening line of “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine” [5]. In order to provide brief contextual information on the novel, we have created a general overview of important topics that includes a biography of Austen, a reception history of Northanger Abbey<\/em>, a brief guide for how to read Austen, a description of the literary trends during Austen’s lifetime, and a timeline of historical events relevant to\u00a0Northanger Abbey.\u00a0<\/em>Each section includes embedded discussion questions that relate this information back to the novel. If you want to read more about these topics, you can click on the hyperlinked words in blue.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Bio” title=”Jane Austen and Northanger Abbey: A Brief Biography” open_toggle_background_color=”rgba(193,172,170,0.7)” open_toggle_text_color=”#795c68″ closed_toggle_background_color=”rgba(193,172,170,0.7)” closed_toggle_text_color=”#795c68″ icon_color=”#6d8792″ _builder_version=”3.0.106″ title_font=”Playfair Display|on|||” title_text_color=”#795c68″ body_font=”Playfair Display||||” saved_tabs=”all” open=”off”]<\/p>\n Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England. Her parents, Cassandra and George, were prominent middle-class members of their community. Her father attended Oxford, and served as a clergy member for an Anglican parish. The Austen family was very close-knit, and the children\u2019s creativity was nurtured. Austen and her brothers and sisters were encouraged to read their father\u2019s extensive collection of books. They also wrote and performed their own plays. Austen shared especially close bonds with her father and her older sister, Cassandra. Austen and Cassandra were sent to boarding schools in pursuit of further education during Austen’s early adolescent years. This education proved short, however, as the Austen family could no longer afford boarding school. From this time forward, they lived with their family at home and pursued more informal methods of education.<\/span>[1]<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Hampshire, England. Contains Ordnance Survey data \u00a9 Crown copyright and database right [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to Cassandra, Jane Austen wrote what was to become <\/span>Northanger Abbey <\/span><\/i>while she was in her twenties,<\/span> around 1798 or 1799. She originally titled the novel <\/span>Susan<\/span><\/i>. After failing to publish two other novels, Austen’s hopes were renewed when her elder brother, Henry, was able to sell <\/span>Susan <\/span><\/i>to a publishing house called Crosby & Co. The publisher planned to send the book to print in a timely manner, and even advertised it in a local brochure. However, the book lingered unpublished at Crosby & Co. for six years before Austen finally reached a point of frustration. In 1809 she wrote a firm letter to Richard Crosby under the pseudonym of \u201cMrs. Ashton Dennis\u201d which, when read as an acronym, notably spells out \u201cMAD.\u201d<\/span>[2]<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n She inquired as to why the book had never been published, since \u201cearly publication was stipulated for at the time of sale\u201d then offered to send another copy of the manuscript if they had lost theirs. She went on to state that if they did not respond promptly, she would take the liberty of pursuing publication via another publisher. An equally firm response was returned. Mr. Crosby wrote back that \u201cthere was not any time stipulated for its publication, neither are we bound to publish it\u201d and threatened to take legal action if Austen\u00a0attempted to publish her book anywhere else. However, he did also offer to sell the manuscript back for the same amount he had bought it for. Austen\u00a0could not afford to buy the novel back. Thus, it collected dust on the shelves of Crosby & Co. for the following seven years. In 1816, Austen’s brother Henry bought <\/span>Susan<\/span><\/i> back for the same ten pounds it had fetched.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n He followed the repurchase by revealing to the publisher that the book was written by the author of the now successful <\/span>Pride and Prejudice<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Sense and Sensibility<\/span><\/i>. In the midst of this turmoil, another novel titled S<\/span>usan<\/span><\/i> was published. Thus, as Austen revised her book, she changed the titular character’s name to Catherine<\/em>. She then wrote an \u201cadvertisement by the authoress\u201d intended to explain why certain parts of the book were not as current as they were at its time of composition.<\/span> The note read as follows: <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cADVERTISEMENT BY THE AUTHORESS, TO <\/span><\/em>NORTHANGER ABBEY<\/span>. This little work was finished in the year 1803, and intended for immediate publication. It was disposed of to a bookseller, it was even advertised, and why the business proceeded no farther, the author has never been able to learn. That any bookseller should think it worthwhile to purchase what he did not think it worthwhile to publish seems extraordinary. But with this, neither the author nor the public have any other concern than, as some observation is necessary upon those parts of the work which thirteen years have made comparatively obsolete. The public are entreated to bear in mind that thirteen years have passed since it was finished, many more since it was begun, and that during that period, places, manners, books, and opinions have undergone considerable changes.\u201d <\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Soon after writing this, in another surprising turn of events, Austen resolved to further delay publication. As she wrote in a letter to her niece Fanny in early 1817, \u201cMiss Catherine is put upon the shelves for the present, and I do not know that she will ever come out.\u201d \u00a0Tragically, she passed away before her Miss Catherine had the chance to debut. After her death, her brother Henry renamed the novel <\/span>Northanger Abbey, <\/span><\/i>took it to publisher John Murray,<\/span>\u00a0and released it alongside <\/span>Persuasion<\/span><\/i> in December, 1817.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n By Jane Austen (1775 \u2013 1817) (Lilly Library, Indiana University) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Henry also added a \u201cbiographical notice\u201d to the beginning of the book, detailing aspects of Jane Austen\u2019s life. The notice is similar in tone to a eulogy. It describes her character through the eyes of her brother, and also quotes several of the author\u2019s own letters. The biography paints an idyllic picture of a cheerful, placid, \u201cfaultless\u201d author and a \u201cgenius\u201d who was modest about her talents. It portrays her life as uneventful, peaceful, quiet, and almost too good to be true. <\/span>[3]<\/span><\/a> It was the first attempt to provide a basic biography of Austen’s life using her true name, and thus carried much weight to sway the public\u2019s opinion of her. This biography sowed the seeds of the still perpetuated myth of Austen as a demure and shy woman, holed up in isolation in the English countryside, writing only during her spare time. Biographies like the one by Henry Austen have blotted from history a vision of Austen as possessing a fiery spirit and a lively imagination, and of her books as written with much more than a tiny village in mind. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In fact, her world was much bigger than just tiny English villages. Austen had two brothers, Francis and Charles, who were sailors in the British Navy. They had the opportunity to travel the world and bring their stories back home to Austen, who was greatly inspired by them. According to Edward Austen-Leigh in his Memoir<\/em>, Austen\u00a0\u201cfelt herself at home with ships and sailors\u201d and possessed a\u00a0\u201cpartiality for the Navy\u201d about which she wrote with “readiness and accuracy.” Further global perspective came from her cousin Eliza Hancock, who was fourteen years her senior. Born in Calcutta, India, Eliza was surrounded by adventure, intrigue and gossip. She was most likely the daughter of George Austen\u2019s sister Philadelphia and Tysoe Hancock, but was rumored to be the natural child of her godfather Warren Hastings. Hastings would later become the first Governor-General of Bengal, India. In 1765, Eliza moved to England with her parents, later settling in France. It was there that she met and married Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Capot de Feuillide, a captain of the French army. However, she was forced to leave France and settle again in England after the beginning of the French Revolution. Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Capot de Feuillide, Eliza\u2019s husband, was arrested for loyalty to the French monarchy and guillotined. In 1794, Eliza arrived to Steventon at a critical moment in Austen’s life, during her pre-adolescent years. Austen\u2019s worldview was shaped by her cousin and her ties to India. According to Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh, Eliza had a \u201csignificant influence on her teenage years\u201d and was one of her \u201cmost colorful connections.\u201d Eliza was a notorious flirt, skilled socialite, and reportedly possessed great beauty and talent in many areas. [4]<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Portrait of Eliza de Feuillide<\/em>, By Unidentified painter, 18th-century portrait painting with Unidentified or Unknown, artist, location and year. (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 1869, nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published a biography of his aunt entitled <\/span>A Memoir of Jane Austen.<\/span><\/i> It was a product of collaboration between many of Austen\u2019s family members, and drew heavily upon their recollections of her. The family encountered some disagreement over how much personal information should be revealed in the memoir, such as Austen\u2019s romantic life. Austen-Leigh referred to “dear Aunt Jane”<\/span>[5]<\/span><\/a> as someone who was very centered upon domestic life and uninterested in public renown for her writing. He portrayed writing as a hobby for her, something she only did in moments of free time. In 1871, a second edition of the memoir was published, this time including primary writings from Austen herself that had previously gone unpublished. Because her sister Cassandra had made the decision to burn most of these letters, the memoir was able to draw from a precious few of them. However, these manuscripts do serve to inform us that Jane Austen was in fact interested in writing as much more than a simple hobby, and may have been less placid and demure than her nephew initially described her.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n James Edward Austen-Leigh The portrayal of Austen as reserved in the writings of both her brother and her nephew may\u00a0simply be a product of Victorian conventions of biography. Consistent with such tradition, these biographies kept most sensitive information out of the public eye. <\/span>[6]<\/span><\/a> The memoir in particular was important, however, as it threw Austen’s works further into the literary spotlight, and rendered her books visible and accessible to a wider audience. It is likely that if not for James Edward Austen-Leigh and his memoir, Austen\u2019s novels would not be as widely circulated as they are today.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What aspects of Jane Austen\u2019s childhood and young-adulthood do you think influenced her writing the most? Why? (For instance, how do you think her exposure to her father\u2019s vast library influenced her message about the role of the novel?)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n What are the risks of interpreting the text through this biographical material?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n What aspects of Northanger Abbey<\/em> do you think demonstrate Austen\u2019s global perspective?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_toggle][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_code admin_label=”Reception History Timeline ” _builder_version=”3.0.65″]\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1027\/2017\/06\/Hampshire_UK_location_map.svg_-300x255.png\")
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\nSee page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n