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 a lighthearted, yet unsentimental commentary on love and marriage.
This was Jane Austen’s micky take on the Gothic romances and the stupidity/vacuity of some girls.
Catherine gets introduced to Henry Tilney, and manages to secure an invite to the Tilney’s old house for an extended stay. Every where she looks she imagines that something horrendous is going to happen (e.g. looking for hidden doors behind tapestries, candles being blown out for other reasons than there just being a draught). In fact, not an awful lot happens during her stay (apart from her and Henry falling in love natch!).
Henry’s father is a drunk and a bully (generally not particularly nice person) and tries to put a stop to any marriage by threatening to cut Henry off, which in all Gothic novels would have instantly happened and that would have put an end to things. However, Henry stands up to his father, and he and Catherine get married.
I first read this after seeing a BBC adaptation in the 1980s, but it was only on re-reading it much later that I realised just hw awful Henry’s father was.
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