The Idea Of A Knowable Community In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey

William in his book The Country and the City writes about the idea of a knowable community and that the city is a place of learning and communication. A knowable community in Williams’s perspective is an actual place reflecting a historical place in the world and that is correctly portrays the atmosphere of the location at the time. A city is a place of “noise, worldliness and ambition” (Williams, 1). Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey seems to support and not support his idea of a knowable community. She supports by portraying the architecture of Bath correctly and mirrors the social interactions of her characters with the people in London during the 19th century correctly. However she does not present a perfect Bath because during the 19th century Austen should have

This means that the setting in novels reflects the real world and that nothing is made up. William is not a fan of imagination as it would seem as shown that he prefers the actual portrayal of the country side than a fake one which ignores the harsh life of the workers. Novelists should offer “to show people and their relationships is essentially knowable and communicable” (Williams, 163). This means that the setting is potentially relatable (knowable) to the audience and by being knowable it is communicable to the audience reading the text. The audience is able to recognise the setting and potentially feel more of a relation to the story. He mentions in his book that Jane Austen does a good job of portraying a knowable community through her novels that often focuses on 19th century England and the life of the upper middle class. The novels communicates to the reader the insights of the interdependence and relationships between the people and their society. The setting of the novel is in Bath, Somerset. Austen carefully depicts the setting of Bath. As shown through the multiple locations her characters visit such