Northanger Abbey

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A delicious satire of the Gothic novels popular at the time of its first writing in 1798-99: the heroine, Catherine, an innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage, thinks life is like a Gothic novel, but her real experiences bring her down to earth as an ordinary young woman. Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist.