#10: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Catherine finds reality veering from her favorite Gothic novels in Northanger Abbey, one of Jane Austen's posthumous works.

Northanger Abbey is widely perceived to be a parody of the Gothic novels of the time, as well as full of Austen's pointed observations about marriage, wealth, and society.  

Austen riffing so much on the tropes of Gothic fiction, from moody landowners to imprisoned wives to mysterious castles, sets this apart from some of her more serious works.  A fun read.

I chose this to read along with a class trip to London and Bath with my wife's collegiate field study.  I listened to it on audiobook on loan from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library.

#6: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Anne is convinced to call off an engagement, but years later--still unmarried--gets a second chance with Captain Wentworth in Jane Austen's mature, final work Persuasion.

Austen seems like an unusual read in the midst of westerns and crime novels, but I am helping my wife with an English field study and wanted to read along with the college class.  This one takes place in Bath, one of the stops on the field study.

Austen is a smart, literate writer and her novels are considered peerless in terms of writing about British society and 19th-Century relationships.  Recommended for any reader.

I listened to a good audiobook read on loan from the New Castle-Henry County Library in New Castle, Indiana.