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Article: "Rare in burlesque": Northanger Abbey.(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- Philological Quarterly
- Article date:
- January 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 University of Iowa. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Dors, dors, mon enfant, Jusqu'a l'age de quinze ans, A quinze ans faut te reveiller, A quinze ans faut te marier.
It has been appreciated for many years that a special part of the appeal and literary-historical significance of Northanger Abbey lies in the way the novel dramatizes and articulates the relationship between the two fictional modes it deploys: novelistic realism on the one hand and a satiric version of Gothic fiction on the other (what Reginald Farrer called in 1917 "serious drama" and "parody"). "As for the reader," Farrer concluded, "the closer his study of the dovetailing of the two motives, the profounder his pleasure." (1) Reflection on the moral ...