Northanger Abbey

Novel in two volumes by Jane Austen, presumably written about 1798 with revisions at later points (Fraiman xii-xiii) and published posthumously in 1817 together with Persuasion. It revolves around Catherine Morland, a young woman who is obsessed with Gothic literature.

Plot Summary

Volume I

Fifteen-year-old Catherine Morland leads a rather boring life in Fullerton with her family until their friends Mr and Mrs Allen invite her along to Bath. There, she initially suffers under their lack of acquaintance, but with the introduction to the Thorpes and the Tilneys, things begin to become more exciting: She becomes fast friends with Isabella Thorpe, an acquaintance of her brother James and with whom she can discuss her penchant for thrilling Gothic novels, while the forthcoming and charming Mr Henry Tilney soon becomes the object of her affection. Due to her naivety, Catherine neither notices the romantic feelings between James and Isabella, nor does she realize the significance of the attentions of Mr John Thorpe, Isabella’s self-absorbed and affectated brother. Throughout several balls and rides, Catherine’s interest in Henry and his sister Eleanor rises while her dislike for John grows, especially after he intentionally lies to get her out of an engagement for a walk with the Tilneys, which leads to a temporary discord with them. Catherine’s honest manner secures her the forgiveness and friendship of Henry and Eleanor, and she is invited by their father General Tilney for dinner. Her friendship with Isabella, waning up until this point due to neglect from the other’s side, is reinvigorated when Isabella informs her of engagement to James. John, meanwhile, announces his departure from Bath and bids Catherine farewell in a way which reveals his affection for Catherine to the reader but passes by Catherine herself.

Volume II

James’s parents reveal the moderate fortune he can offer in two years’ time, upsetting Isabella. Meanwhile, Captain Frederick Tilney, brother to Henry, appears in Bath and offers attentions to Isabella, who allows them much to Catherine’s dismay, yet her pleas for Henry to reason with his brother fall on deaf ears. She is further troubled when Isabella tells her of a letter from John, who thinks himself secure of Catherine’s affection, a claim she strongly refutes and which Isabella easily accepts. Catherine’s spirits rise when General Tilney and Eleanor entreat her to come with them to their home, Northanger Abbey, a place Catherine imagines to be full of mysteries as in her Gothic novels. Her excitement is elevated even more when Henry invents a thrilling story about her potential adventures at the abbey, which leads to her exploring her chamber with high expectations, but the allegedly mysterious chest and wardrobe reveal themselves to be mundane. Catherine’s Gothic expectations come into play again when she learns of the death of the late Mrs Tilney, and she develops the idea that General Tilney either murdered her or keeps her locked away, a delusion soon dispelled by Henry. Catherine has only little time to be ashamed when a letter from her brother reveals the annulment of his engagement; the letter from Isabella which claims that all had been a misunderstanding is not believed by Catherine. General Tilney drops explicit hints that he wishes for a union between her and Henry, yet at the height of her happiness, the General sends her back home abruptly. Catherine is unable to fathom the reason why, until Henry hurries after her and explains his father: Due to misinformation provided by John, General Tilney first believed Catherine to be a lot wealthier, then a lot poorer than she actually is, and thus an unsuitable match for his son. Henry confesses his feelings, the misunderstanding is cleared, and after Eleanor marries wealthily, the novel ends with General Tilney’s consent and Catherine marrying Henry.

About the Novel

Parody of the Gothic Novel

Northanger Abbey parodies the genre of the Gothic novel both in style and content. Potentially mysterious or thrilling events are introduced and then quickly revealed to be mundane. Despite Catherine’s evident obsession with Gothic novels – which identifies her as a “quixotic reader”, a common feminine stereotype in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature (Dale 150, Brown 251) – and Northanger Abbey as the titular setting, these allusions to the genre gain weight and momentum in the second volume only to be quickly dismissed and cleared up again, thus appearing less important than the overarching romantic and coming-of-age themes typical for Austen’s novels, furthering the burlesque mode. Similarly, Catherine is repeatedly referred to as “heroine” by the heterodiegetic narrator despite the mundane occurrences, a choice which thus appears rather ironic and humorous as in the following quote, referencing the aforementioned wardrobe: “that collection of washing-bills [in the wardrobe] . . . by which my heroine was involved in one of her most alarming adventures” (Austen 173). In general, the style of the narration can be described as displaying “mock seriousness” (Fraiman x). Northanger Abbey is thus a “highly self-conscious work of art . . . whose chief theme is the difference between illusion and reality, and the importance of knowing which we are dealing with at any one time” (“Northanger Abbey”).

Defence of the Novel

Northanger Abbey contains Austen’s famous defence of the novel, which Susan Fraiman dubs “one of the boldest, most self-confident artistic manifestoes in the history of literature” (vii): While Catherine and Isabella discuss their shared passion for novels, the heterodiegetic narrator diverges and becomes even more overt than at any other point in the narrative, describing the novel as some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language (Austen 23). The superlative style of this defence can be attributed to the similarly exaggerated attacks on the genre of the novel as a trivial genre for weak-minded women by contemporary critics (Fraiman viii), which the narrator both laments and refutes at length in the passage. Some critics like Amelia Dale go a step further and consider not only this passage, but the entire novel and its subversive use of quixotism as an effort to “defend the pleasure of novel writing and novel reading” (152).

Sources

• Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. Edited by Susan Fraiman. W.W. Norton & Company, 2004.
• Brown, Gillian. “The Quixotic Fallacy.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction, vol. 32, no. 2, 1999, pp. 250–273.
• Dale, Amelia. Conclusion. The Printed Reader: Gender, Quixotism, and Textual Bodies in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Bucknell University Press, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019, pp. 149-153.
• Fraiman, Susan, editor. Introduction. Northanger Abbey. Written by Jane Austen. W.W. Norton & Company, 2004, pp. vii-xiv.
• “Northanger Abbey.” The Jane Austen Society of the United Kingdom, www.janeaustensociety.org.uk/. Accessed 6 December 2020.