69. Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. 213 pages. 6.10.09.

Jane Austen's first novel is a delightful and witty satire of gothic literature, and is a paradigm of both her future genius and current youthful exuberance. While I would argue that Austen by no means condemns the genre itself nor the reading of it, she does artfully illustrate the foolishness of expecting such romantic extremes in real life, and in her own writing acknowledges the conventions of the genre that render it so identifiable. Like Austen's later work, Northanger Abbey is full of social commentary and astute observations as she leads you through a year of the life of Catherine Morland - the increasingly romantic young woman who finds herself in several less-than-gothic conflicts.

Northanger Abbey is as charming the second and third time as it was the first. As a fan of both Austen's body of work and the gothic genre, I can't help but find myself enamored with this particular work. I do not hesitate to give Northanger Abbey my highest rating.