For fans of Jane Austen-A Northanger Abbey Double Feature!
In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, the main character, Catherine, receives a reading list of gothic novels. Once thought to be fabricated by Austen, these novels were rediscovered in the 1920s and are now referred to as the "Northanger Horrid Novels." Two of the Northanger Horrid Novels, The Castle of Wolfenbach and The Necromancer, are presented here as a Northanger Double Feature.
With hidden identities, damsels in distress, creepy castles, and villainous Counts,
The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) is a showcase for the gothic genre. The story follows the beautiful Matilda as she escapes unwanted advances, braves the haunted castle, and attempts to find safety, and maybe even love, all while being pursued by her murderous uncle. The Castle of Wolfenbach is Eliza Parsons's most famous novel and an important foundational work in the gothic genre.
The Necromancer (1794) is by far the strangest of the Northanger Horrid Novels. The story begins with two friends, Herman and Hellfried, passing a stormy night by exchanging supernatural stories. The weirdness continues to unfold through a series of letters. The work is an example of the gothic genre's use of framing narratives surrounding first person accounts from multiple characters. The Necromancer takes this trope to staggering heights by nesting multiple narratives inside each other. The resulting stories are a bizarre collection of violence and supernatural shenanigans centered around the mysterious Valkert, who is rumored to have returned from the dead.
Both of these stories are amazing examples of early gothic works and can be enjoyed as such for fans of the genre or read as a companion to Austen's Northanger Abbey.
Flammenburg, Lawrence: - Lawrence Flammenberg was born Karl Friedrich Kahlert in 1765 anddied in 1813. He also wrote under the pseudonym Ludwig Flammenberg. His work, Das Geisterbanner was translated into English by Peter Will (writing as Peter Tuethold) under a new title: The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest. Kahlert is credited as a major influence for Matthew Lewis's The Monk.
Parsons, Eliza: - Eliza Parsons was an English author best known for having penned two of the seven Northanger Horrid Novels. Parsons is presumed, based on a baptismal certificate, to have been born in 1739. Her father, John Phelp, was a successful wine merchant and used his wealth to provide his only daughter with a better education than many of her contemporaries. She married James Parsons at age 21 and had eight children. The decline in James Parsons's health and subsequent death, as well as the death of all three of her sons, led Eliza Parsons to seek means to support her remaining children and herself. She began writing, and over the course of the next seventeen years wrote nineteen novels and one play. Though prodigious, Parsons often struggled with money until her death in 1811. The Castle of Wolfenbach is her most famous work.
Will, Peter: - Peter Teuthold was the pseudonym for Peter Will. Teuthold is best known for his translation of Lawrence Flammenberg's Der Geisterbanner: Eine Wundergeschichte aus mündlichen und schriftlichen Traditionen into The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest and Carl Grosse's Der Genius, Horrid Mysteries, which is also included in the Northanger Horrid Novels list. Little is known beyond his work on these projects.
