Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
“only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language”
Northanger Abbey, Vol. I, Ch. 5 (1817 first edition)
The narrator's defence of the novel against those who dismiss it as 'only a novel'.
Citation: "only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language" — Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Vol. I, Ch. 5 (1817 first edition). (id northanger-abbey-q2)
Portrait: CassandraAusten-JaneAusten(c.1810) hires, Cassandra Austen, Public domain.
