Northanger Abbey — A Level Student Guide

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is a witty and highly entertaining novel combining romance, social satire and a playful parody of Gothic fiction. Through the inexperienced but imaginative Catherine Morland, Austen explores reading, judgement, friendship, love, social manipulation and the sometimes uncertain boundary between fiction and reality.

Catherine arrives in Bath with little knowledge of fashionable society and soon finds herself negotiating friendships with Isabella and John Thorpe and a growing attachment to the intelligent and perceptive Henry Tilney. Her invitation to Northanger Abbey appears to promise the Gothic adventure of her reading — but Catherine must learn that real human selfishness and cruelty rarely resemble the extravagant mysteries of fiction.

This comprehensive Coleman’s Notes® A Level Student Guide takes students beyond plot knowledge into the literary analysis, interpretation and critical argument required for advanced study.

Inside the guide: detailed Plot Summary; chapter-by-chapter analysis of all 31 chapters; character studies and relationship map; themes and key ideas; Gothic fiction and parody; reading, imagination and reality; love, marriage and social class; friendship, manipulation and judgement; money and social power; language, irony and narrative method; historical and literary context; key quotations with analysis; extended character studies; theme dossiers; A Level literary methods; critical perspectives; comparative opportunities; fifteen key episodes; ten critical debates; five detailed essay plans; five model answers; additional practice questions; passage-analysis practice; 25 Exam & Revision Questions; revision toolkit; thirty Quick-Recall Questions with answers; and a final revision checklist.

Particular attention is given to Catherine Morland, Henry Tilney, Isabella Thorpe, John Thorpe, Eleanor Tilney and General Tilney, together with the relationships through which Austen examines experience, education and the development of independent judgement.

The guide explores Austen’s sophisticated use of irony, narrative intervention, free indirect discourse, parody, dialogue and literary allusion, showing how Northanger Abbey can simultaneously enjoy the conventions of Gothic fiction and expose the dangers of interpreting real life through them.

Designed for A Level English Literature study and revision, the guide is particularly valuable for independent critical study, close textual analysis and developing sustained literary arguments.

Individual Student Guide — £9.95
Complete Jane Austen Collection — £39.95

UNDERSTAND • ANALYSE • REVISE • SUCCEED

Coleman’s Notes® is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by AQA, Jane Austen’s publishers or other rights holders.