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Reading Guides

Introduction to Emma

An Introduction to Austen's Emma
by Natalie Goldberg

Former JASNA-GCR Regional Coordinator Natalie Goldberg offers an insightful overview of a heroine in search of friendship. Because Emma has been likened to a “detective novel” in which love, not crime, is hunted out, this article is best read as a recap of the novel.

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Jane Austen's Emma

Emma - Discussion Questions

Natalie Goldberg offers thoughtful and enlightening questions for Austen's fourth published novel. Use them as reading-group or class discussion starters, reading homework checks, essay prompts, or a way to guide and enhance your own reading of the novel.

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Emma - Essay Topics

Natalie Goldberg, a longtime English teacher, presents writing projects for teachers to use in their teaching of Austen's Emma.

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Pride & Prejudice Cultural Influences
by Sue Forgue and Linda Reinhart

Sue Forgue, founder of The Regency Encyclopedia website and Linda Reinert, English teacher at Wheaton North High School, team up to explore the historical context of three very important themes in the novel - marriage, money and the education of women.

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Predecessors of Jane Austen

Predecessors of Jane Austen
compiled by Ronnie Jo Sokol

Jane Austen’s father encouraged his daughters to love literature and read widely in his 500-volume library. That love grew through purchases of their own, subscription library memberships, and loans from friends. Jane Austen’s first novel, Northanger Abbey, is proof that readers become writers. Her witty parody of the Gothic novel is itself a defense of novel reading. Here, longtime GCR member, Ronnie Jo Sokol offers an extensive list of Northanger Abbey’s predecessors, including 34 works Austen refers to in Northanger Abbey.

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