Gothic travel in Northanger Abbey
Uden, James
This book chapter explores the relevance of travel literature for understanding Jane Austen's posthumously published novel 'Northanger Abbey'. The novel was shaped by the fashion for 'Gothic travel', a mode of travel discourse in the late 1790s that sought to rediscover historical locations in Britain as sources of exciting gloom and terror. The experiences of the central character in the novel have also been shaped by Austen's reading of contemporary travel literature in the period. Travel, it turns out, is central to understanding both the plot of the novel and its cultural context.
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