Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews June 14, 2023 June 7, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
The protagonist of Northanger Abbey. Catherine is seventeen years old, and has spent all her life in her family's modest home in the rural area of Fullerton. While Catherine has read many novels (particularly Gothic novels), she is very inexperienced at reading people. Her naiveté about the world and about the motivations and character of the people she meets is an endless source of confusion and frustration for her. Nonetheless, Catherine is very intelligent and learns from her mistakes, and can also be witty. Her strongest attributes are her integrity and caring nature.
Henry Tilney is a 26-year-old parson in a small village called Woodston. He is intelligent, well-tempered, and attuned to the motivations and behavior of those around him. He is very well read, and enjoys novels as much as history books. He is good natured, but has a wry cynical view of human behavior. He is often amused at the folly of others, but he takes care to gently instruct them properly, if possible, particularly in the case of the naïve Catherine.
Henry's younger sister, Eleanor is a shy, quiet young woman. She shares an interest in reading with her brother, but for the most part, her reserve prevents her from having many friends. Like her brothers, Eleanor is often subject to the somewhat tyrannical behavior of her father, General Tilney.
The domineering father of Henry, Eleanor and Captain Tilney. He is a widower. Like several characters in the novel (such as Mrs. Allen), the General is very concerned with material things. He takes great pride in his home, Northanger Abbey, which he has refurbished himself. He is preoccupied with both earning money and spending it. He enjoys eating a large dinner and having the best of everything, and he wants his children to marry wealthy people. He has a gruff nature which make some, such as Catherine Morland, think poorly of him.
One Mrs. Thorpe's three daughters, and the sister of John Thorpe. She is Catherine's best friend for the first half of the novel. Isabella is attractive and very spirited, but like her mother, she is a gossip and often concerned with superficial things. She enjoys flirting with many young men, which bothers the more reserved Catherine. Ultimately, Isabella's nature causes her to lose both James and her other boyfriend, Frederick Tilney.
The brother of Isabella, he is conceited, arrogant, and given to boasting and exaggeration. He talks endlessly and rarely listens. Like his sister, John is given to superficiality. John tries to woo Catherine, but his arrogance quickly turns her against him.
The brother of Catherine and a fellow student of John Thorpe at Oxford University. James is mild-mannered and very caring, like his sister. James falls for Isabella Thorpe and becomes engaged to her, but breaks off the engagement when she begins a flirtation with Frederick Tilney.
Captain Frederick Tilney (often referred to simply as "Captain Tilney") is the oldest sibling in the Tilney family. Unlike his brother Henry or his sister Eleanor, Frederick is a flirt and given to mischief. Austen suggests that Frederick is the Tilney child closest in character to General Tilney by identifying both men by their ranks rather than by their names. Frederick flirts with Isabella Thorpe and leads her to break off her engagement with James Morland, then abandons her in Bath.
The couple that invites Catherine to go to Bath with them. Like Catherine's family, the Allens live in the rural town of Fullerton. They are older and wealthier than the Morlands, but they are childless, and they see Catherine as a kind of surrogate daughter. Mr. Allen is a practical man who spends most of his time in Bath playing cards; Mrs. Allen is greatly concerned with fashion, and spends her time either shopping, knitting, or talking to Mrs. Thorpe.
Mrs. Thorpe is the widowed mother of Isabella and of two other daughters. Like her daughter, she is concerned primarily with gossip, fashion, and money. In conversation with her friend Mrs. Allen, Mrs. Thorpe talks mostly about her pride in her children (Mrs. Allen has no children) while Mrs. Allen talks about her gowns (Mrs. Thorpe is not nearly as wealthy as the Allens).
The family, which includes Catherine and James, is from the rural town of Fullerton. We visit the Morlands only briefly, at the beginning and end of the novel. Mr. and Mrs. Morland are relatively simple, practical folk, especially compared to people like Mrs. Thorpe and General Tilney. Both James and Catherine must get the approval of their parents before they can marry their prospective spouses.
Please wait while we process your payment