NORTHANGER ABBEY

Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abby and Gothic Novels

Introduction

During our academic life and sometimes just for the sake of the pleasure, we read a lot of books and novels. There are few novels that leave long lasting impressions on our life, heart and mind. The aim of this essay is also to talk about one of the aspects of the novel. The novel that this paper talks about is one of the writing pieces of famous writer Jane Austen with the name of Northanger Abbey. The published form of Northanger Abbey can therefore, be seen as the earliest of the six novels. The aspect that this essay argues about is how far does Northanger Abbey fulfil and/or challenge some of the conventions of the gothic. The discussion that is done in this paper suggests that this story of Jane Austin proves that this story possesses resemblance and inspiration of the gothic genre in more than one ways.

It is the possible exception of Sense and Sensibility, the most literary. Northanger Abbey, like some of Austen's juvenile burlesques, confronts the conventions of the gothic novel or tale of terror. The incidents of her novel have been shown to parallel, with the obvious difference, the central lines of gothic romance had appeared several years before Austen began work on her burlesque. As an enthusiastic reader of tales of terror, Catherine Morland has gothic expectations of life despite a background most unsuitable for a heroine. Like the gothic heroines she admires, Catherine commences adventuring early in the novel.

Discussion

In the tradition of the late eighteenth century sentimental and gothic novels which it parodies, Northanger Abbey presents its heroine with a series of increasingly difficult trials that she must overcome in order to achieve self-knowledge, knowledge about the world, and the hand of her true love. Yet Catherine Morland is an atypical heroine, and her adventures are less than heroic.

In all the history of the novel, perhaps no genre can claim more popularity than the gothic novel of the late eighteenth century. The gothic fad, however, was all but over when Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen's parody of the gothic novel, published in 1818, a year after her death. Her monumental mockery had been written when such works were at their height of popularity, about 1797-1798. The novel got sold to a publisher in 1803 but got published posthumously (Jones 2007, 87).

In her early twenties at the time of the composition, the young author lived in the quiet rectory where she was born in the Hampshire village of Stevenson; her circumstances resembled those of the young heroine of her novel even to including such amusements as poring over gothic novels. Those persons who have not read Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), which occupies so much of Catherine Morland's time, and thoughts, will find other reasons to enjoy Northanger Abbey, but knowledge of The Mysteries of Udolpho or any other gothic novel will bring meaningful rewards (Lambdin and Robert 2000, 20).

At one level, Northanger Abbey is an amusing parody ...