Northanger Abbey (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Jane Austen
- First Published: 1818
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social criticism
- Time of Work: The end of the eighteenth century
- Setting: Bath, England, and the surrounding countryside
- Principal Characters: Catherine Morland, Henry Tilney, Isabella Thorpe, John Thorpe, Eleanor Tilney, General Tilney
- Genres: Long fiction, Gothic fiction, Fiction of manners, Bourgeois fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Values, Love or romance, Nineteenth century, Literature, Betrayal, Friendship, Social life, Brothers and sisters, Eighteenth century, Wit or humor, Imagination, Clergy, Gossip, Naivete
- Locales: Bath, England
Form and Content
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.
The novel covers a period of approximately two months, six weeks of which are spent in the resort town of Bath, where the seventeen-year-old Catherine goes with Mr....
[The entire page is 2468 words long]
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