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Description

Catherine is invited to spend a few weeks in Bath with a friend. While there she meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor, who invite her to their family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic romances, allows her imagination to run wild, finding dreadful... read more

Summary

Catherine Morland is a fairly unremarkable seventeen-year-old living in a small village, Fullerton, with her nine siblings and her parents. Fortunately for Catherine, this boring state of affairs only lasts one chapter. The Allens, a well-off childless couple, invite Catherine to visit tourist... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Cast of Characters/Important People

  • Catherine Morland: A 17-year-old girl who loves reading Gothic novels.
  • Henry Tilney: A well-read clergyman in his mid-20s, the youngest son of the wealthy Tilney family.
  • John Thorpe: Isabella's brother.
  • Isabella Thorpe: A manipulative and self-serving young woman on a quest to obtain a well-off husband.

Memorable Quotes

  • “A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.”
  • “...I leave it to be settled by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny or reward filial disobedience.”

First Sentence

No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine.

Glossary

  • Abbey: An abbey is a monastery ruled by an abbot or a convent ruled by an abbess. When an English property has 'Abbey' in its name, it means that there used to be an abbey there in medieval times.
 

More Books Like This

   
  • To the Lighthouse
  • Score!
  • Sanditon and Other Stories (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
  • Cat Among the Pigeons
  • Mansfield Park
  • Kissing Adrien
  • The Mill on the Floss
  • The Harvester
  • The Light Princess, and Other Stories (Fantasy Stories of George MacDonald)
  • Shirley (Oxford World's Classics)

Books with Additional Background Information

   
  • York Notes on "Northanger Abbey" by Jane Austen (York Notes)
  • Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey": A Study Guide from Gale's "Novels for Students" (Volume 28, Chapter 9)

Books That Influenced This Book

   
  • The Mysteries of Udolpho (Penguin Classics)
  • Caleb Williams or Things as They Are

Books Influenced by This Book

   
  • Atonement

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