Bath
Jane Austen lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806, and the city appears in two of her novels as a place where people go to be seen, to take the waters and to spend money they may not have. Northanger Abbey sends a naive heroine into its assembly rooms; Persuasion gives the same streets to a woman who already knows what they cost.
Bath was a purpose-built resort, and its records are unusually complete. The record office holds property, poor-law and civic material that explains who was actually living in the houses Austen's characters rent, and what a season in the city involved for the people who serviced it.
A library to check
- Bath Record Office — catalogues and digital collections, open to readers online
Books connected to Bath
- Northanger Abbey — Jane Austen, 1817. Austen's funniest novel, and the best-tempered parody in English.
- Persuasion — Jane Austen, 1817. Austen writing about regret rather than courtship, with the most grown-up heroine she created.
- The Expedition of Humphry Clinker — Tobias Smollett, 1771. An epistolary road novel that is rude, energetic and unexpectedly modern about class.
A note on accuracy
We describe literary connections and public collections, not street addresses, opening hours or ticket prices. Those change and we cannot verify them for every reader. Follow the institution's own site for current visiting information.