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 novel as completely a satire of the Gothic genre is problematic. Irvine points out that, except in book II, the problems faced by Catherine are not caused by her reading Gothic novels, nor is Catherine's rejection of romantic love following Henry's outburst the climax, but instead is followed by Catherine being summarily expelled from Northanger Abbey after General Tilney discovers that she is not rich as he had been led to believe. Irvine observed that for Catherine her expulsion is a traumatic event that is equal in its emotional impact to the horrors that she had imagined General Tilney committing.