![]() Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. That opinion has not endured, and the only novel Emily Bronte published is now considered to be one of the great classics of English literature. The book was initially poorly received by many critics who found its dark, tragic story needlessly harsh and disturbing. ![]() Published in 1845, Emily Bronte’s gothic novel set on the windy moors of Yorkshire is the story of the doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and her father’s adopted son, Heathcliff. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry’s mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.Įxecuted with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is a lighthearted, yet unsentimental commentary on love and marriage. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. The story’s unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. But as Frankenstein soon discovers, a successful experiment does not always equal a positive outcome.Ī wonderfully entertaining coming-of-age story, Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen’s “Gothic parody.” Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist. Soon, his experiments progress further until he creates a humanoid creature eight feet tall. Young scientist Victor Frankenstein, grief-stricken over the death of his mother, sets out in a series of laboratory experiments testing the ability to create life from non-living matter. Presented here by Reader’s Library Classics is the original 1818 text of Frankenstein. In 1831 and after much pressure, Mary Shelley revised the text to be more fitting to contemporary standards. Published anonymously in a three volume series, Frankenstein instantly set the standard for a true literary horror and its themes led many to believe it was the first true science fiction novel. The three were tasked with writing a ghost story, which resulted in one of the most famous novels to come from the 19th century. The idea of a reanimated corpse was famously conceived by an 18 year old Mary Shelley on holiday with her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron near Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Rather, these are books that I personally consider classics, and that I would like to annotate. It’s certainly not a question I want to answer in this post. Needless to say, that is a question that will never be completely answered to everyone’s satisfaction. I talk about it some in my blog post about the problem with the dark academia. Of course, what exactly a classic is or isn’t is a bit of a minefield. I’ve already finished with my annotations of Pride & Prejudice and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but completing those projects made me realize that there are a lot more classics I want to annotate. I even started a new bookstagram account I named for the purpose of documenting the various annotation projects I wanted to start up. But then of course I ended up eating my words when I decided to give it a try and found that I liked it. I liked looking at people’s annotated copies of various books on Instagram and YouTube, but I couldn’t fathom doing it myself. A year ago, my attitude towards annotation was pretty ambivalent.
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