Eglinton Tournament of 1839 romanticism and praise of chivalric ideals. Walpole himself was one of the first in England to renovate his mansion into a mock-Gothic castle, Strawberry Hill (1749–1777). Medieval culture was widely admired as an antidote to the modern enlightenment and industrial age. Plays and theatrical works (such as "Ivanhoe", which in 1820 was playing in six different productions in London alone) perpetuated the romanticism of knights, castles, feasts and tournaments. Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) of Germany painted magnificent Gothic ruins and spiritual allegories. Jane Austen (1775–1815) wrote her novel "Northanger Abbey" (written 1798, published 1817) as a satire on romantic affectation.
Northanger Abbey it is not until the shocking wrongdoing against her brother that Catherine entirely separates herself from their friendship, stating that she may never speak to Isabella again, and is not as upset as she thought she would be. As this scene takes place almost immediately after Catherine's lesson about Gothic novels, it is a clear sign of her increasing maturity. Reading as a valuable tool for personal growth. In one of Austen's narrator's boldest proclamations, the narrator of "Northanger Abbey" exclaims upon the significance of reading novels, writing: "I will not adopt that ungenerous and impolitic custom so common with