Northanger Abbey Study Guide
Jane Austen is one of the most famous figures in English romanticism of the first half of the 19th century. She is still considered to be the “first lady” of English literature. Her “novels of customs” are conquered for the third century by sincerity, subtle psychology and true English humor.
“Northanger Abbey” is a literary parody on a gothic style and at the same time a satire on conventional novels of polite society.
It is a light, fascinating and funny story about a seventeen-year-old romantic girl who takes too seriously all that she reads on the pages of her favorite books, imagining herself a heroine of a dark and thrilling Gothic novel. For the first time has left parents and having gone on a journey, the girl begins to get acquainted with real life. Through mistakes, she learns to know who is her true friend and finds her love.
Catherine Morland arrives at Bath, a trendy resort, where the main events that determine her fate take place. Katherine becomes the object of the struggle of two families - Thorpes and Tilneys. Katherine is at the center of the intrigue. Conflict of the contenders on her hand and heart dispersed the girl's dreams of a romantic hero. She does not believe in John Thorpe's false feelings; she is more than happy with Henry Tilney's nobility and honesty. And she did not make a mistake - in a difficult moment, he confirmed the rightness of her choice.
A good psychologist and an expert of the human heart, the writer, has created extremely expressive and true images. Her heroes are living people, with all their dignity and disadvantages, capable of both high feelings and great mistakes. The main character Catherine is a simple, inelegant, not talented, naive, not beautiful, but sincere and extremely honest person.
For over two centuries, the reader's interest to “Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen is not diminished. This novel is a good alternative especially if you want to plunge into those ancient times and learn more about people's life.
Author: Hector Ramos
New Essays
"Northanger Abbey" is the latest novel by Jane Austen, published posthumously. This is a mature work which is a parody of the genre of the Gothic novel that was widespread in the late nineteenth century. The heroes of the "Northanger Abbey" with rapture read Anna Radcliffe's gothic novel and are...
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” — Chapter 1, page 29 — “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” — — “It is only a novel... or, in...
?Northanger Abbey essay 1. How far does Northanger Abbey fulfil and/or challenge some of the conventions of the gothic? Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey, is regarded by many as a light-hearted parody of the gothic genre. The term 'gothic' is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary...
?Northanger Abbey by Jane Austin Key facts: full title: Northanger Abbey author: Jane Austen type of work: Novel genre: 'bildungsroman'(novel of education or moral development); parody of Gothic novels language: English (British, late 1700s/early 1800s) time and place written: 1798–1799 in...