Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey is both a perfectly aimed literary parody and a withering satire of the commercial aspects of marriage among the English gentry at the turn of the nineteenth century. But most of all, it is the story of the initiation into life of its naïve but sweetly appealing heroine, Catherine Morland, a willing victim of the contemporary craze for Gothic literature who is determined to see herself as the heroine of a dark and thrilling romance. When Catherine is invited to Northanger Abbey, the grand though forbidding ancestral seat of her suitor, Henry Tilney, she finds herself embroiled in a real drama of misapprehension, mistreatment, and mortification, until common sense and humor—and a crucial clarification of Catherine’s financial status—puts all to right. Written in 1798 but not published until after Austen’s death in 1817, Northanger Abbey is characteristically clearheaded and strong, and infinitely subtle in its comedy.
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What you might want to know about Northanger Abbey
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Catherine Morland, a clergyman's daughter raised on gothic novels, gets her first season in Bath and an invitation to the Tilneys' grand abbey. She arrives convinced she is the heroine of one of her books. She is not.
Yes. Northanger Abbey was published posthumously in 1817 and is in the public domain. Free editions are available legally through Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, and similar archives.
Yes. Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey is a satirical riff on gothic novels of the late 18th century, particularly Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. The protagonist Catherine Morland reads too much gothic fiction.
Northanger Abbey was written by Jane Austen, published in 1817 by MG.
Northanger Abbey is 251 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Northanger Abbey takes most readers 4 to 5 hours to finish.
Northanger Abbey is a standalone novel by Jane Austen, not part of a series.
Northanger Abbey is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.