Emily in the Castle of Udolpho In yesterday’s post I discussed anxious parents and proposed Northanger Abbey as a sane approach to teenage reading (and movie watching and internet using). I elaborate here. I start first with the reading material in question. Heroine Catherine Moreland and her best friend Isabella Thorpe are enthralled with the […]
Tag Archives: Novel reading
The Rebellious Thrill of Gothics
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged adolescence, Anne Radcliffe, Italian, Jane Austen, Mysteries of Udolpho, Northanger Abbey Comments closed
Mocking Adult Anxieties about Novels
“Before,” by William Hogarth (1736) What can happen to your daughters if they read novels? According to William Hogarth, something like the above. Check out the lower left hand corner where a side table is falling over. The drawer has been left casually but deliberately open so that one can see the book that is […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Before", adolescence, Child rearing, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Rambler #4, Richard Sheridan, Samuel Johnson, School for Scandal, William Hogarth Comments closed
Danger: Georgian Teens Reading Novels
Samuel Johnson If we need proof that adolescence has always been a difficult age, we can look at those 18th century moralists that were panicked about young people reading novels. Of course if you’re young (to build off of a comment that Barbara makes in response to Friday’s post), part of the fun of reading […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged adolescence, censorship, Henry Fielding, Rambler #4, Samuel Johnson, Tom Jones Comments closed
