What does Jane Austen have to say about novel reading and how does what she has to say reflect upon the fashions of her time? What is the impact of novel reading upon Catherine Morland?

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What does Jane Austen have to say about novel reading and how does what she has to say reflect upon the fashions of her time? What is the impact of novel reading upon Catherine Morland?

Northanger Abbey was one of the last of Jane Austen’s novels to be published in 1818, however it was the first to be written, during the years of 1798 and 1799. The book had originally been sold to Richard Crosby for £10 in the spring of 1803, titled ‘Susan’,

Crosby decided not to publish it because he believed that the market for Gothic satire was declining. Henry Austen bought the book back, thirteen years later leaving it to be revised into ‘Northanger Abbey’, first advertised as a romance not a novel.

Northanger Abbey is a fierce parody of the late 18th century Gothic styles: fainting heroines, 'terror' and haunted medieval buildings. Austen targets with particular venom Ann Radcliffe's extremely popular The Mysteries of Udolpho and has the characters reading and mimicking it whilst the author undermines it at every opportunity. Austen's comparatively book as good as ruined Radcliffe's reputation. Northanger Abbey itself concerns a typical Austen heroine, the young Catherine Morland who is taken to the fashionable resort of Bath with her friends the Allens. From there she travels to the medieval abbey, the home of the Tilneys. Catherine becomes obsessed with the possible atrocities going on at Northanger Abbey, inspired by Radcliffe's novel. Austen injects a little romance into the novel and she puts Captain Tilney under the spell of the scheming Isabella Thorpe. This novel's central theme is the peril of confusing life and art, which also occurs in Emma and Sense and Sensibility.

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        It was in the late 18th century and early 19th century that the novel became the most popular reading material, this has a lot to do with the increase in urbanisation in Britain, growing literacy among "ordinary" people. Especially in the 18th century saw an increase in women's literacy and a corresponding rise in the number of female readers and writers. Novels mainly appealed to women at first, it was only ‘respectable women who sat at home leaving them spare time to read novels, the introduction of lending libraries allowed people to obtain novels. People enjoyed novels because they critically ...

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