Author: Jane Austen
Other Works by Author:
Pride and Prejudice
Emma
Sense and Sensibility
Mansfield Park
Persuasion
Genres: Gothic Parody, Romance
My Rating: 4
Summary: 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.
(Summary taken from Goodreads)
My Thoughts: To be honest I had been avoiding this book. I had heard that it was a Gothic parody novel and I thought it might be scary.
I was wrong. There were a few intense parts but it was not scary. My impression was that Austen was almost making fun of Gothic novels.
I was not expecting it to be so short, it made for a nice quick read.
I really enjoyed it.
My Favorite Quotes:
~ “It is only a novel… or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language”
~ “Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it.”
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