Clermont (novel) "Midnight Bell", "Orphan of the Rhine", and "Horrid Mysteries". Those will last us some time. Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid? —"Northanger Abbey", ch. 6 "Clermont", as well as the other "horrid novels", were once thought to be the creations of Jane Austen's imagination, however research in the first half of the 20th century by Michael Sadleir and Montague Summers confirmed that they did actually exist and stimulated renewed interest in the Gothic. Clermont (novel) Clermont is a Gothic novel by Regina Maria Roche. It was first published in 1798 by
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