An Unlikely Heroine: Catherine Morland, Jane Austen, and Northanger Abbey
Cost:
$ 60.00 per personDuration:
1h 30minAbout this experience
Tuesdays, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
October 6 – 20
Perhaps not as famous as the opening line of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey’s first sentence is equally humorous and intriguing: “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be a heroine.” Austen’s wry humor and irony, evident here, set the tone for one of her most satirical works. Catherine Morland’s literary diet of Gothic literature has colored her view of the world, leading to humorous misunderstandings and comic mishaps. Northanger Abbey, completed in 1803 but not published until after Austen’s death in 1818, is both a satire of popular Gothic literature as well as a novel of social survival, as Catherine, naive and innocent at the start, learns critical life lessons as she navigates the city of Bath’s social scene and rises above the narrator’s opening assessment of her. (Carolyn recommends the Norton Critical Edition, ed. by Susan Fraiman).
Week 1: Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Background and Chapters 1-10
Week 2: Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Chapters 11-20
Week 3: Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Chapters 21-31; Film and Book Adaptations
Refund Policy
To receive a refund, a written request must be received 3 business days before the first class. A $25 processing fee will be deducted from the refund. Cancellation requests received less than 3 business days before the first class but before the second meeting will receive a 50% refund.
ALL written requests should be emailed to emeritus@spartanstrategiesinc.org or mailed to the address below.
Spartan Strategies, Inc.
Attn: Emeritus Society
5900 Summit Avenue, #201
Browns Summit, NC 27214
Your Host
Carolyn J. Brown (Ph.D., UNC-Greensboro) is a teacher, writer, editor, and independent scholar. Winner of the 1991 UNCG Dissertation Award, her areas of specialty are medieval, Renaissance, and 18th-century literature. She is the author of five works of nonfiction, including award-winning biographies of Mississippi writers Eudora Welty and Margaret Walker. In addition, she has published articles in essay collections and several peer-reviewed journals, including Persuasions, the journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA). Brown is a former board member of JASNA, a current member of the Nominating Committee, and has presented papers at their annual conference, most recently in 2025. She teaches continuing education classes in Greensboro and Chapel Hill.