NOTE: The Post-Reading/Discussion questions are below
Answer two of the following for Wednesday's class (or you can e-mail it to me anytime between now and then):
Q1: As we discussed in class, Catherine is a bit naive and bewildered by the world of Bath. But what clues does Austen offer us that show that there's more than meets the eye with her? Though she's "almost pretty" sometimes, what else makes her more than that? And why might Henry Tilney have been interested in her from the beginning?
Q2: Likewise, how do we know that Isabella is a little more like Pamela than Catherine? What makes her untrustworthy and calculating? Why might she have struck up such a friendship with Catherine in the first place?
Q3: Based on the first 8 chapters, how do you think Austen is commenting on or satirizing the conventions of the 18th century "marriage market"? How might Catherine, a relative newbie to this process, help her examine it from a new perspective for her readers?
Q4: Re-read the famous pro-novel speech on pages 58-60 that we briefly discussed in class. Though ostensibly in praise of reading novels, why else might this speech stand out as pretty revolutionary for a teenager (which Austen was when she wrote it)? Why might it have embarrassed the adult Austen and/or her relatives when they published it posthumously?
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