Northanger Abbey

I read my first Jane Austen novel, Persuasion, earlier this year and enjoyed it so I thought I'd give Northanger Abbey a go. When I was studying for my O-levels, I had a friend who attended a different school to the one I went to. Although we were both taking English Literature, we were studying different books. One of the books my friend was reading was Northanger Abbey and I've always wondered about it ever since.

"Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland excitedly accepts an offer to accompany family friends on a trip to Bath. There, Catherine makes new acquaintances who invite her to Northanger Abbey, and she encounters a world she'd only glimpsed in the pages of her beloved gothic novels. Through Catherine's eyes, the Abbey is full of mystery, suspense, and adventure; and she is the heroine at the centre of it all. As her imagination begins to run wild, she imperils her summer, her new friendships, and her burgeoning relationship with the charming Henry Tilney.

Both a satire of gothic fiction and a coming-of-age story, Northanger Abbey is widely regarded as one of Jane Austen's most comedic works."

Although I enjoyed Persuasion when I read it, I have to say that I enjoyed Northanger Abbey a whole lot more. What a shame I didn't study this for my English Literature O-level, though I probably wouldn't have been drawn in to all the drama of high society in Bath at such a young age. The characters are larger than life and although the storyline is light-hearted, it kept my interest the whole way through. 

I shall definitely be reading more Jane Austen.