Jane's words: genius

Today, when we use the word genius we mean the sort of exceptional intelligence and ability possessed by people like Einstein or Marie Curie. However, the meaning of this word was in flux in Jane Austen’s time and this is evident in her novels.

Used to describe someone’s congenital nature and innate talents, in Northanger Abbey, the figure of fun and shopaholic that is Mrs Allen, is rather cuttingly described as:

‘… one of that numerous class of females, whose society can raise no other emotion than surprise at there being any men in the world who could like them well enough to marry them. She had neither beauty, genius, accomplishment, nor manner...’

Ouch!

This lack of genius doesn’t mean she has no extra special intelligence. It simply means that she has no interests beyond clothes which Jane Austen means us to consider as frivolous, silly and certainly not a talent.

But later on, Austen uses the word again in a short burst of free indirect speech. Impressed by Henry Tilney’s comprehens…