diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 82595c1b1..50f63252e 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -62,6 +62,8 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #1085: Fix current classname not getting set if class description has
   ``:noindex:`` set.
 
+* #1181: Report option errors in autodoc directives more gracefully.
+
 Documentation
 -------------
 
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py b/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
index 05996f9e5..ad7b02bbb 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
@@ -1384,8 +1384,15 @@ class AutoDirective(Directive):
                not negated:
                 self.options[flag] = None
         # process the options with the selected documenter's option_spec
-        self.genopt = Options(assemble_option_dict(
-            self.options.items(), doc_class.option_spec))
+        try:
+            self.genopt = Options(assemble_option_dict(
+                self.options.items(), doc_class.option_spec))
+        except (KeyError, ValueError, TypeError), err:
+            # an option is either unknown or has a wrong type
+            msg = self.reporter.error('An option to %s is either unknown or '
+                                      'has an invalid value: %s' % (self.name, err),
+                                      line=self.lineno)
+            return [msg]
         # generate the output
         documenter = doc_class(self, self.arguments[0])
         documenter.generate(more_content=self.content)