Abstract

This essay identifies some parallels between Mrs Goddard's school at Highbury in Emma and the school which Jane Austen herself attended with hersister Cassandra and cousin Jane Cooper between 1785 and 1786, Reading LadiesBoarding School. Certain features of the school were clearly in the author's mindduring the composition of the novel. The equivocal social position of MrsGoddard is emphasised, but the article shows that such people were notinsignificant economically in small country towns like Highbury and Reading; Mrs Goddard has an important place in her community and has considerableinfluence on the action of the novel.

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