A wonderfully entertaining coming-of-age story, Northanger
Abbey is often referred
to as Jane Austen’s “Gothic parody.” Decrepit castles, locked
rooms, mysterious
chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an
uncanny air, but
one with a decidedly satirical twist.
The story’s unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably
innocent seventeen-
year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few
weeks in Bath with a
family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry
Tilney, who invites her
to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there,
Catherine, a great reader
of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old
mansion fill her mind
with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the
death of Henry’s
mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the
elegant rooms of the
Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil
conspiracy? Catherine finds
dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry
persuades her to see the
peril in confusing life with art.
Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is the most
lighthearted of
Jane Austen’s novels, yet at its core this delightful novel is
a serious,
unsentimental commentary on love and marriage.
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