Northanger Abbey
The gothic genre can be seen throughout Northanger Abbey, not only as a writing style,
but also as a form of enjoyment that Jane Austen used to mock the other gothic novels
written in the 1790s and as a form of satire to create comedy. It
makes the novel very interesting and exciting to read, giving an air of curiosity and thrill
for the reader, as well as the usual romance the story has behind it.
The conventions of the gothic are fulfilled throughout the book, with the comments the
heroine makes about the books she reads, with her visit to the Abbey, and also with her
mistrust of General Tilney. The principles of the gothic, are challenged by the author,
because Jane Austen ‘parodies’ and ‘satirizes’ some parts of the book.
As seen on Henry’s speech: (Austen, J., 1993, pp 114); it is undoubtedly a parody:
“And are you prepared to encounter all the horrors that a building such as “what one
reads about” may produce? – Have you a stout heart? – Nerves fit for sliding panels
and tapestry? “
Jane Austen was not interested in the gothic itself, but instead she used it only with the
purpose of parody, as seen above. In Northanger Abbey she accomplished her intention
and created a wonderful gothic satire, which has authentic gothic quotations, such as Ann
Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian, Eliza Parson’s The Castle of
Wolfenbach and Mysterious Warnings, amongst other titles referred in the book.
Northanger Abbey was not the original title for this novel.
Initially, it was called Susan, but Jane Austen decided not to re-title the book after its
renamed heroine, Catherine. Catherine is the main character of this novel; the story
travels with her and is seen with her point of view.
1
The choice of title can be intriguing for some, but after realizing that in gothic novels,
titles are often given after locations rather then people’s names, one
but also as a form of enjoyment that Jane Austen used to mock the other gothic novels
written in the 1790s and as a form of satire to create comedy. It
makes the novel very interesting and exciting to read, giving an air of curiosity and thrill
for the reader, as well as the usual romance the story has behind it.
The conventions of the gothic are fulfilled throughout the book, with the comments the
heroine makes about the books she reads, with her visit to the Abbey, and also with her
mistrust of General Tilney. The principles of the gothic, are challenged by the author,
because Jane Austen ‘parodies’ and ‘satirizes’ some parts of the book.
As seen on Henry’s speech: (Austen, J., 1993, pp 114); it is undoubtedly a parody:
“And are you prepared to encounter all the horrors that a building such as “what one
reads about” may produce? – Have you a stout heart? – Nerves fit for sliding panels
and tapestry? “
Jane Austen was not interested in the gothic itself, but instead she used it only with the
purpose of parody, as seen above. In Northanger Abbey she accomplished her intention
and created a wonderful gothic satire, which has authentic gothic quotations, such as Ann
Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian, Eliza Parson’s The Castle of
Wolfenbach and Mysterious Warnings, amongst other titles referred in the book.
Northanger Abbey was not the original title for this novel.
Initially, it was called Susan, but Jane Austen decided not to re-title the book after its
renamed heroine, Catherine. Catherine is the main character of this novel; the story
travels with her and is seen with her point of view.
1
The choice of title can be intriguing for some, but after realizing that in gothic novels,
titles are often given after locations rather then people’s names, one
Bibliography: Durant, Fabb, Montgomery et al, Ways of Reading, 3rd edition (London: Routledge, 2006 [see the chapters on narrative]. Suzanne Keen, Narrative Form (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics (London: Routledge, 2002) H Porter Abbot, The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) More advanced Alison Case, Plotting Women: Gender and Narrative in the Novel (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999) Seymour Chatman, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980) Gerard Genette, Narrative Discourse (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983) David Herman, Story Logic: Problems and Possibilities of Narrative (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008) Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck, Handbook of Narrative Analysis (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005) David Duff, Modern Genre Theory (Harlow: Longman, 1999) John Frow, Genre (London: Routledge, 2005) Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975) --- Genres in Discourse (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) Vivien Jones, How to Study a Jane Austen Novel (Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 1996) More Advanced Edward Copeland and Julia McMasters, Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen (Cambridge: Cambridge, University Press, 1997) Claudia L Terry Lovell, Consuming Fictions (London: Verso, 1987) Listed below are some articles about Northanger Abbey which frequently situate the novel in the context of Austen’s work as a whole Lloyd W. Brown, ‘The Comic Conclusion to Jane Austen’s Novels’, PMLA, Vol. 84, No.6 (October, 1969), pp.1582-1587 Daniel Cotton, ‘The Novels of Jane Austen: Attachments and Supplantmants’, Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Vol Waldo S Glock, ‘Catherine Morland’s Gothic Delusions: A Defense of Northanger Abbey’, Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Winter, 1978), pp.33-46. Narelle Shaw, ‘Free Indirect Speech and Jane Austen’s Revision of Northanger Abbey’, Studies in English Literature Vol. 30, No. 4 (Autumn, 1990), pp.591-601 Everett Zimmerman, ‘The Function of Parody in Northanger Abbey’, Modern Languages Quarterly, Vol