The so-called "Northanger Canon" is the list of books appearing in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. The flighty Isabella lists for heroine Catherine Morland her version of Gothic classics. The list itself provides an interesting insight into what one woman, Jane Austen, perceived to be the most representative books of the Gothic craze that swept England during her lifetime. The "Northanger Canon" inspired book collector Michael Sadleir to branch out from his previous interest in nineteenth-century books in general to Gothic books in particular. He began his collection of Gothic books by acquiring all of the first editions of the "Northanger Canon." When he began, Gothic books were considered trash among booksellers and collectors and though not easy to find, were not terribly expensive as there was so little competition for books due to the dearth of collectors of the Gothic. It is Sadleir's collections that forms the heart of the University of Virginia's Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Books, an unparalleled collection of Gothic classics, both famous and not. A contemporary upsurge of interest in the Gothic has made the collection even more important to researchers and connoisseurs than ever.

Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. By Jane Austen. London: John Murray, 1818.

Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. By Jane Austen. London: John Murray, 1818. The Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Novels. This is the very rare first edition. As one can see from the first page, this novel is a satire of the Gothic genre. The novel was published 1 year after Austen's death, and this edition includes an apologetic foreword in which the publisher explains that the book may seem out-of-date as fashions in literature have changed. The delight with which Catherine ascertains that the novel is indeed "horrid" is echoed by the contemporary popularity of Gothic literature, nearly two hundred years after the publication of Northanger Abbey. Perhaps literary fashions have not changed much at all.

The Mysteries of Udolpho. By Ann Ward Radcliffe. London: G. G. and J. Robinson, 1794.

The Mysteries of Udolpho. By Ann Ward Radcliffe. London: G. G. and J. Robinson, 1794. First edition. The Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Novels. Coleridge called it "the most interesting novel in the English language" (Critical Review August 1794). Montague Summers remembers how he first conceived his love for the Gothic novel:
My love for the romances of Mrs. Radcliffe dates from my very first years. Bound in dull black morocco, gilt-tooled, Mrs. Radcliffe lived on the summit of the highest summit of the highest shelves in a sombre and shadowy but by no means large old library, where the books stood ranged in very neat rows in tall mahogany cases behind heavy glass doors . . What a day it was . . . when I discovered how an alien key would fit the bookcase locks!
Literary historians regard this novel as the prototype Gothic novel, one that focues on both a young person's search for identity as well as the travails of a peerless maiden.
In the novel, the orphaned Emily St. Aubert is carried off by her aunt's villainous husband Montoni to a remote castle in the Apennines, where her life, honor, and fortune are threated and she is surrounded by apparently supernatural terrors. These are later explained as due to human agency and Emily escapes and after enduring further mysteries, is reunited with her true love Valancourt.

The Castle of Wolfenbach; or the Horrid Machinations of the Count Berniti. By Mrs. [Eliza] Parsons. London: Minerva Press, 1793.

The Castle of Wolfenbach; or the Horrid Machinations of the Count Berniti. By Mrs. [Eliza] Parsons. London: Minerva Press, 1793. First edition. Mrs. Parsons wrote over 60 volumes of Gothic tales to support herself and her children after the death of her husband. 

Clermont. A Tale. By Regina Maria Roche. London: Minerva Press, 1798.

Clermont. A Tale. By Regina Maria Roche. London: Minerva Press, 1798. First edition. The Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Novels. Madeline is a truly Gothic heroine, unsurpassable in beauty or in sensibility. Raised in a romantically ruined castle, she, like most (male) Gothic heroes, becomes engaged in a search for her true history. Of course, her trials are those of the traditional Gothic heroine, and it is through foiling numerous assaults on her virtue that she discovers her true noble birth. 

The Mysterious Warning, a German Tale. By Mrs. Eliza Parsons. London: Minerva Press, 1796.

 

 

The Mysterious Warning, a German Tale. By Mrs. Eliza Parsons. London: Minerva Press, 1796. First Edition. The Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Novels. Replete with German half-brothers, incestuous seduction, and supernatural intervention.