It is a truth universally acknowledged that we don’t need ‘trigger warnings’ on Jane Austen

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email If you thought trigger warnings had gone too far, brace yourself for a new one – on Jane Austen . That's right, the University of Greenwich has seemingly taken it upon itself to add content warnings (CW) to Northanger Abbey , due to its portrayal of " sexism " and "gender stereotypes". English literature students studying the book have also been warned about the "toxic relationships and friendships", according to content notes seen by The Telegraph. What is interesting, of course, is how furiously this misses the point. Northanger Abbey is a novel about a young woman, Catherine Morland, coming of age in the Regency period. She is naive, quixotic – and fascinated with gothic literature, which begins to bleed into her everyday life. More than that: the novel is itself a satire that wryly mocks gender roles in literature, with Austen writing at one key point: "A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can". If you wanted to see an example of art imitating life, this… Read full this story

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