I found this link in the beginning of the quarter about the Gothic novels mentioned in Northanger Abbey:
"In Northanger Abbey, Isabella Thorpe recommends seven Gothic novels to Catherine Morland:
"In Northanger Abbey, Isabella Thorpe recommends seven Gothic novels to Catherine Morland:
‘Dear creature! how much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read The Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.’For a century it was assumed that Jane Austen had invented these titles, but then Montague Summers and Michael Sadleir discovered they were actual novels. Here’s an excerpt from Horrid Mysteries, which is certainly well named:
‘Have you, indeed! How glad I am! — What are they all?’
‘I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocket-book. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.’
‘Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?’
‘Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews, a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the world, has read every one of them.’
‘Thank God, Countess,’ one of them began, ‘that you have been rescued from the cruel hands of that barbarian, and are now in the company of more humane beings!’Ironically, Austen’s parody may have rescued these titles from an oblivion they otherwise deserved. Announcing his discovery in a 1927 article, Sadleir wrote, “So long as Jane Austen is read — which will be for at least as long as there are readers at all — [these novels] will survive as tiny stitches in the immense tapestry of English literature.”"
‘From what cruel hands?’ I replied, with astonishment.
‘From those of your pretended lover, the Marquis Carlos of G******.’
‘Be silent, vile reptile,’ I exclaimed, ‘and dare not to asperse the name of a man whom I adore!’
I find the quote by Sadleir you ended you blog with quite telling about Jane Austen and her novels abilities to continue to resonate to some degree with contemporary issues and society. Although, I am not personally a huge fan of Jane Austen, I have encountered so many people throughout my career as an English Major who are absolutely enthralled with her work. Sadleir's belief that Austen has preserved gothic titles just through peppering their names throughout her works really does speak volumes to her powers as a writer.
ReplyDeleteI guess I can only make conjectures as to why Austen would wish to include the names of the various titles in her work, but I think she holds a great interest in not only promoting the worth of her works, but also in promoting the ideals the gothic genre prides itself on.
By specifically mentioning these various gothic titles, she encourages her readers to see how others have worked towards solidifying the same values her work perpetuates, thus continuing to speak to the importance and longevity of these values within society.
Great post, Leah! While reading Austen's novel, I found this intertextuality to be interesting as well actually. There is much to be said throughout the work about literature, reading,literary criticism, and the literary process in general, and for this reason I felt inclined to think of the novel as more of a modern, or even postmodern work of literature. She references other, real works of literature-as your post illustrates, and thereby displays a certain degree of intertextuality in her own work. This fact, in combination with her overt defense against literary critics towards the beginning of the novel, makes Austen's work noticeably reflexive and self-conscious; the work shows awareness of itself as a manufactured piece of literature. Modern literature is at least in part defined by intertextuality and self-reflexiveness and by displaying these motifs on numerous occasions, I think a legitimate argument could me made as to how Northanger Abbey functions as a Modern work or art.
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