Looser, Devoney. "(Re)Making History and Philosophy: Austen's Northanger Abbey. European Romantic Review. vol 4.1(summer 1993). 34-55.

This article deconstructs the terms "history," "philosophy," and "novel" in an attempt to understand how Austen used, and related to, these concepts in her work. This provides insight into what Austen thought young women ought to study, and thus on her very hidden political agenda. Looser also presents the novel, as opposed to the conduct book, vying for readers, and offering them something accepted as a special kind of truth: truth, rather than fiction, fact, or conjecture, and deserving respect on its own terms.