Toby R. Benis, “The Neighborhoods of Northanger Abbey”
This essay analyzes the role of place and community in Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Toby Benis investigates the concept of the “neighborhood” in terms not only of geographical space, but also of social space: a neighborhood is not only where one is, but also who one knows. While the “neighborhood” is a distinct and traditional concept in the English countryside—and one that shapes all social intercourse there—in places such as Bath, social interactions take place outside the conventions of an established community. As an itinerant watering place, Bath was a locus of ever-changing communities, in which new “neighborhoods” of acquaintances were constantly being made and dissolved. Benis considers the opportunities and dangers attendant both on the traditional gentry neighborhood of the country estate and the more socially unstable neighborhood of Bath.