Northanger Abbey ~ Jane Austen

As with all the Jane Austen novels I have read the main theme is about getting married, and marrying well. But the joy of her novels is in the dialogue and her observations of genteel life. 

Catherine Morland is a young girl heavily into reading gothic novels.  Unfortunately this increases her already vivid imagination and when she is invited to spend some time at Northanger Abbey she is thrilled.  Living in a modern day abbey is not as chilling as in the gothic novels, but the father of her love interest would make an excellent character in one of them.  Whilst not as sinister to murder his wife as Catherine supposes he has, he is a very disagreeable man, and Catherine inadvertently falls foul of him.  

There are some wonderful characterizations in this novel, one being the selfish Isabella Thorpe.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.