Northanger Abbey | Mysteries of Udolpho (abridged) | Castle of Otranto

Northanger Abbey is, of course, one of my favorite books. This edition is interesting for putting Austen's satire together with two of titles she was actually poking fun at in her own novel. Reading the three together helps put the nature of Austen's work into a different perspective than when it is simply read as part of a Jane Austen collection. However, I can't give it the review that Northanger Abbey deserves on its own, simply because the Castle of Otranto and the Mysteries of Udolpho are both so melodramatic and awful! Reading them along with Austen certainly shows why she would make fun of them!

Two stars, shouldn’t be on the list, a waste of my brain cells reading this stultifying pap.

Stultifying stupid book, boring beyond belief.