Northanger Abbey has two main settings. The first part of the novel takes place in Bath, England. In Volume 1, Chapter 2, the narrator describes Catherine's arrival in Bath:
They arrived at Bath. Catherine was all eager delight;—her eyes were here, there, every where, as they approached its fine and striking environs, and afterwards drove through those streets which conducted them to the hotel. She was come to be happy, and she felt happy already. They were soon settled in comfortable lodgings in Pulteney-street.
Bath, a town in Somersetshire, immediately impresses Catherine. It seems "fine and striking," and this makes Catherine very happy. She spends her first days in Bath shopping and getting her hair styled with Mrs. Allen. Catherine's apparently-average character seems easily excited by this less-than-exotic adventure.
The second part of the novel takes place 30 miles from Bath, at Northanger Abbey, the home of the Tilney family. In Volume 2, Chapter 5, the narrator emphasizes Catherine's excitement about her journey to the abbey:
[...] with the interest of a road entirely new to her, of an abbey before, and a curricle behind, she caught the last view of Bath without any regret, and met with every mile-stone before she expected it.
This road trip gives readers an expansive glimpse of the space between the two primary settings of the novel, and this distance between them becomes almost as important as the places themselves, illustrating that Catherine's story is one of movement and adventure.
But the most important setting is the titular Northanger Abbey, which used to be a church but was converted into a home by the Tilney family. General Tilney is obsessed with perfecting its grounds and gardens. It is also a parody of a Gothic castle, as Catherine imagines it to be the Castle of Udolpho (a reference to the Gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho). Furthermore, it's worth noting that Northanger Abbey is situated in a fictional place in the real county of Gloucestershire.
Northanger Abbey has two main settings. The first part of the novel takes place in Bath, England. In Volume 1, Chapter 2, the narrator describes Catherine's arrival in Bath:
They arrived at Bath. Catherine was all eager delight;—her eyes were here, there, every where, as they approached its fine and striking environs, and afterwards drove through those streets which conducted them to the hotel. She was come to be happy, and she felt happy already. They were soon settled in comfortable lodgings in Pulteney-street.
Bath, a town in Somersetshire, immediately impresses Catherine. It seems "fine and striking," and this makes Catherine very happy. She spends her first days in Bath shopping and getting her hair styled with Mrs. Allen. Catherine's apparently-average character seems easily excited by this less-than-exotic adventure.
The second part of the novel takes place 30 miles from Bath, at Northanger Abbey, the home of the Tilney family. In Volume 2, Chapter 5, the narrator emphasizes Catherine's excitement about her journey to the abbey:
[...] with the interest of a road entirely new to her, of an abbey before, and a curricle behind, she caught the last view of Bath without any regret, and met with every mile-stone before she expected it.
This road trip gives readers an expansive glimpse of the space between the two primary settings of the novel, and this distance between them becomes almost as important as the places themselves, illustrating that Catherine's story is one of movement and adventure.
But the most important setting is the titular Northanger Abbey, which used to be a church but was converted into a home by the Tilney family. General Tilney is obsessed with perfecting its grounds and gardens. It is also a parody of a Gothic castle, as Catherine imagines it to be the Castle of Udolpho (a reference to the Gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho). Furthermore, it's worth noting that Northanger Abbey is situated in a fictional place in the real county of Gloucestershire.
