History Literature / NorthangerAbbey

* SacredHospitality: Played straight by Henry and Eleanor. Subverted by General Tilney.

* ShoutOut: To numerous pieces of literature from its day.

* SuddenlySuitableSuitor: The ''deus ex machina'' ending.
* TearsOfRemorse: Catherine, after Henry disillusions her about his mother's death.

* UnableToSupportAWife: Eleanor's lover, though this isn't mentioned until the end.

* HugeGuy,TinyGirl: In the ITV adaptation, JJ Feild’s Henry looms over Felicity Jones’ Catherine.

* Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: In the ITV adaptation, JJ Feild’s Henry looms over Felicity Jones’ Catherine.

The definitive [[GothicHorror Gothic]] parody, ''Northanger Abbey'' was Creator/JaneAusten's first completed novel, which she wrote as "Susan"; it developed farther the satiric vein found in her juvenilia, such as ''Literature/LoveAndFreindship''. However, circumstances prevented the novel from being published until after her death in 1817.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Catherine's mistrust of General Tilney. Is he a murderer? No. But he ''is'' an untrustworthy Jerkass who emotionally abuses his children and kicks a teenage girl out of his house all her own with no care as to how she'll get home.

** Isabella fears this from James's parents, for [[WrongGenreSavvy no good reason]].

* Gaslighting: John and Isabella Thorpe both accuse Catherine of having promised everything from a dance to a ride to an engagement of marriage, and when she protests, they try to convince her that she has a terrible memory.

* AdultsAreUseless: Mrs. Allen fails to do her job when it comes to advising Catherine on etiquette. She fails at it so completely, in fact, that Catherine finally complains that she's being left dangerously to her own devices.

* BlondBrunetteRedhead: Isabella Thorpe, Catherine Morland and Eleanor Tilney in the ITV version.

* ChekhovsGunman: In ITV's TV version, John Thorpe first appears at the assembly where Catherine meets Henry, staring at Catherine as she and Henry dance. He also shows up as a dastardly villain in one of her dreams, pursuing Catherine and Henry on a rainy night and dueling Henry.

* {{Diary}}: Whether Catherine actually keeps one is never mentioned in the novel, but Henry jokingly assumes that all young women do, and goes on to speculate that that's why they're (supposedly) so good at letter-writing. This is an early (perhaps the first) example of the word "journal" used as a verb. Henry speaks several times about "journaling", making the whole conversation sound oddly modern. Played straight in the 2007 movie, in which she is revealed, two seconds after this conversation, to be writing about the events.

* ConversationalTroping: EVERYWHERE!
* ConspiracyTheorist: Catherine has all these suspicions about the Tilneys and the abbey, all of them based on nothing except conventions of Gothic novels, and jumping to wild conclusions based on tiny discrepancies in what she thinks someone's behaviour should be. For this, she earns the title of IdiotHero, because although she tends to be smart if naive in other matters, here she drops down right into deep stupidity. She [[CharacterDevelopment gets better, though]].

* AristocratsAreEvil: Mrs. Morland is unaware of this, and does not warn her daughter against the peril.

Countering the AdaptationOverdosed tendency of Austen's other works, this has to be the least adapted of all her works. It was twice adapted into {{Made for TV Movie}}s, once by Creator/TheBBC in 1986 and once by {{ITV}} in 2007. The Creator/{{PBS}} series ''Series/{{Wishbone}}'' also used it as the basis of an episode, with the eponymous dog in the role of Henry. Marvel Illustrated released a ComicBookAdaptation starting November 2011, script by Nancy Butler, pencils and inks by Janet Lee, and covers by Julian Totino Tedesco. It was also the second book given a modern day SettingUpdate by The Austen Project, written by [[Series/WireInTheBlood Val McDermid]].

* CommicallyMissingThePoint: After Isabella and James are officially engaged, John Thorpe makes a pass at Catherine by saying that they will go to the wedding and try the truth of the old song "Going To One Wedding Brings On Another".

* DreamSequence: Catherine has several of these in the ITV version. They go in this order:

* ClockKing: General Tilney.

* [[AscendedFanboy Ascended Fangirl]]: Gothic romance novel fangirl Catherine gets to spend some weeks in a Gothic abbey. [[spoiler: The trope is ultimately subverted, when Catherine is proven to be WrongGenreSavvy.]]

* ChekhovsGun: Deliberately invoked by the {{Narrator}} to ''deliberately narrowly avert'' an AssPull!

* DeusExMachina: General Tilney refused to let Catherine wed Henry only because [[spoiler:he did not want Henry to marry a poor girl]]. But when his daughter Eleanor marries a nobleman, it makes him happy enough to consent to his son's marrying whomever he wants (although it also doesn't hurt when he finds out that Catherine's [[spoiler: not as poor as he thought]]). By the way, [[ChekhovsGun remember]] the [[spoiler:laundry list? That was said rich man's]].

* ForegoneConclusion[=/=]MediumAwareness[=/=]SpoiledByTheFormat: "The anxiety, which ... must be the portion of [[spoiler:Henry and Catherine]] ... can hardly extend, I fear, to the bosom of my readers, [[LampshadeHanging who will see in the tell-tale compression of the pages before them]], that we are all hastening together to [[HappilyEverAfter perfect felicity]]."
** Subverted in editions that include ''Lady Susan'' and the unfinished novels; in these, the end of ''Northanger Abbey'' occurs when only halfway through the book.

* MoralityKitchenSink: A major part of the Aesop for Catherine.
* NaiveEverygirl: Catherine

* OhWaitThisIsMyGroceryList: Catherine finds some old papers, and imagines their terrifying contents just as the lights go out. When she gets some light and reads them, she finds a laundry list. [[spoiler:This is a ChekhovsGun]].

* PoorCommunicationKills

** [[spoiler:Isabella Thorpe for James Morland.]]
** [[spoiler:John Thorpe for Catherine. He's not much of one, though; Catherine perceives him as a {{Jerkass}} from day one and is never truly interested in him in the first place, only doing things with him because he is James's friend and Isabella's brother.]]

* SpoiledByTheFormat: Lampshaded (see ForegoneConclusion, above). [[invoked]]

The definitive [[GothicHorror Gothic]] parody, ''Northanger Abbey'' was Creator/JaneAusten's first completed novel, which she wrote as "Susan"; it developed farther the satiric vein found in her juvenilia, such as ''Literature/LoveAndFreindship''. However, circumstances prevented the novel from being published until ''after her death'' in 1817.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: After the 2007 adaptation was broadcast, a letter to the ''RadioTimes'' complained that the scriptwriter had added a jarring reference to baseball. That passage came word for word from the book. In fact, the OED records it as the first mention of baseball (by that name) in literature.

Countering the AdaptationOverdosed tendency of Austen's other works, this has to be the least adapted of all her works. It was twice adapted into {{Made for TV Movie}}s, once by Creator/TheBBC in 1986 and once by {{ITV}} in 2007. The Creator/{{PBS}} series ''Series/{{Wishbone}}'' also used it as the basis of an episode, with the eponymous dog in the role of Henry. Marvel Illustrated released a ComicBookAdaptation starting November 2011, script by Nancy Butler, pencils and inks by Janet Lee, and covers by Julian Totino Tedesco. It was also the second book given a modern day SettingUpdate by The Austen Project, written by [[WireInTheBlood Val McDermid]].