Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey is a satire of the Gothic novels popular at the time of its first writing in 1798-99. The heroine, Catherine, thinks life is like a Gothic novel, but her real experiences bring her down to earth as an ordinary young woman. The novel is more explicitly comic than her other works and contains many literary allusions that her parents and siblings would have enjoyed, as a family entertainment-a piece of lighthearted parody to be read aloud by the fireside. The novel names many of the Gothic novels of that time and includes direct commentary by Austen on the value of novels, which were not valued as much as nonfiction or historical fiction. As most all her letters were burned after her death, later scholars appreciate this insight into Austen's views.