In creating Catherine, the heroine of Northanger Abbey, Austen creates the heroine of a Gothic novel. It is also the novel most closely related to the novels that influenced Austen’s reading, and parodies some of those novels, particularly Anne Radcliffe’s Gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho. Northanger Abbey was the first novel Jane Austen wrote. It is only through bad experiences that Catherine really begins to mature and grow up. In addition, Catherine Morland realises she is not to rely upon others, such as Isabella, who are negatively influential on her, but to be single-minded and independent. Parody of the Gothic novels’ “Gothic and anti-Gothic” attitudes. The maturation of the young into sceptical adulthood, the loss of imagination, innocence and good faith. The dangers of believing life is the same as fiction.

Life lived as if in a Gothic novel, filled with danger and intrigue, and the obsession with all things Gothic. The conflicts of marriage for love and marriage for property. The intricacies and tedium of high society, particularly partner selection. Later, we will have a closer look at the main characters in a spoof of the 18th Century Gothic novel.

Today, we will spend a bit of time with the themes addressed, literary references, etc.

Previously, I looked at the history of the writing of Austen’s “first” and “last” novel. Title page from the original 1818 edition – Public Domain – Lilly Library, Indiana University

Northanger abbey