Northanger Horrid Novels
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The Northanger Horrid Novels are the seven early works of Gothic fiction recommended by the character Isabella Thorpe to Catherine Morland in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey (1818):
- “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.”
- “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.”
The complete titles and authors of these books are:
- The Necromancer: or, The Tale of the Black Forest (1794) by 'Ludwig Flammenberg' (pseudonym for Carl Friedrich Kahlert; translated by Peter Teuthold). London: Minerva Press.
- Horrid Mysteries (1796) by the Marquis de Grosse (translated by P. Will). London: Minerva Press.
- Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) by Eliza Parsons. London: Minerva Press.
- The Mysterious Warning, a German Tale (1796) by Eliza Parsons. London: Minerva Press.
- Clermont, a Tale (1798) by Regina Maria Roche. London: Minerva Press.
- Orphan of the Rhine (1798) by Eleanor Sleath. London: Minerva Press.
- The Midnight Bell (1798) by Francis Lathom. London: H. D. Symonds.
These books, with their lurid titles, were once thought to be the creations of Jane Austen's imagination, however later research by Michael Sadleir and Montague Summers confirmed that they did actually exist and stimulated renewed interest in the Gothic. They are currently all being reprinted by Valancourt Press.
[edit] References
- Sadleir, M. (1944) Things Past
- Montague Summers (1938) The Gothic Quest: a History of the Gothic Novel
