The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest is a Gothic novel by Ludwig Flammenberg (which is a pseudonym for Carl Friedrich Kahlert) first published in 1794. It is one of the seven 'horrid novels' lampooned by Jane Austen in "Northanger Abbey", once thought not to exist except in the text of "Northanger Abbey". The novel consists of a series of lurid tales of hauntings, violence, killings and the supernatural featuring the adventures of Hermann and Helfried and the mysterious wizard Volkert the Necromancer, who has seemingly come back from
Georgian society in Jane Austen's novels titular "Northanger Abbey", or Donwell Abbey in "Emma"), parks (mansions surrounded by a vast park, like Mansfield Park in the novel of the same name, or Rosings Park in "Pride and Prejudice"), courts (another type of mansion, in theory approached via a vast courtyard, like Sotherton Court in "Mansfield Park"), halls (manors, like Uppercross Hall in "Persuasion", and finally simple houses, like Longbourn House, the home of the Bennet family in "Pride and Prejudice". This is why Catherine Morland is so delighted when she discovers Northanger Abbey, thinking, "With all the chances against her of house, hall, place, park, court,