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Persuasions #7, 1985                                                                                                                                            Page 8

 

Pronunciation of “Northanger”

 

At the JASNA meeting in Savannah on October 11, 1985, a speaker raised a minor storm by pronouncing “Northanger” with accent on the first syllable and a soft “g.”  I hope we can settle the matter by referring to Cassandra Austen’s note of the date of the composition of her sister’s novels.  This note belonged to Alberta H. Burke until she died in 1975.  It was bequeathed to the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.  The note is reproduced in the Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen Volume VI opposite page 242.  Here Cassandra carefully shows the words as “North-hanger.”

 

Henry Burke