"It's the setting for Persuasion and Northanger Abbey and is referenced, at least peripherally, in each of her other novels. Regency-era Bath was a place of drama after all, a trendy spa town where people had traveled for centuries seeking the health benefits of its mineral-infused thermal waters. Where women went to find husbands, and anyone could easily lose their way, morally or financially."
"I knew all of this when I went for a night, to explore the UNESCO-listed city famed for its Roman remains and Georgian architecture as much as its associations with Jane. It was pure coincidence though, that I checked into the courtyard apartment at 4 Sydney Place on a rain drenched afternoon in mid-December during the week of what would have been her 250 th birthday."
Jane Austen lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806 and described the city as "all vapour, shadow, smoke, and confusion," reportedly fainting when told her family would move there. Bath's social life, Roman remains, and Georgian architecture influenced Persuasion and Northanger Abbey and appears peripherally in other novels. Regency-era Bath functioned as a fashionable spa town centered on mineral-rich thermal waters where marriage prospects, moral risk, and financial peril converged. 4 Sydney Place is a Grade I listed Georgian townhouse retaining original features and operates as a holiday let within the UNESCO-listed city.
Read at CN Traveller
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