Therefore, Coleridge is able to give the society something to read with value that is interesting but does not become foolish. He created a work that included gothic conventions but also had value and meaning to those who read it.
When first reading the story seemed as if it were contradicting itself. Jane Austen stood up for the novel when she says, "Yes, novels- for I will not adopt that ungenerous and impolitic custom so common with novel writers, of degrading by their contemptuous censure the very performance, to the number of which they are themselves adding- in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language."" However, she does continue to make a parody of the novel, as it was know. This may suggest that she did see the positive aspect in the novel; she thought that it was important to read the gothic novels but also it was important to read other literature such as history. .
Austen was making a statement about society and the types of literature that was being read. Jane Austen is showing that Catherine is not the ideal reader. Henry is the real protagonist in this story. He is the person that we as readers should strive to be, not Catherine. He is well read, and she is not. In the novel we can see this in a conversation with his sister and Catherine, Henry states that he has read "all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and most of them with great pleasure-. It is apparent that he has read much more than Catherine, yet he does not make her feel inferior through his attempts to limit the discussion to Gothic romances. Henry reveals that he enjoys Gothic romances as fantastic and imaginative entertainments, but does not consider them to be realistic.
Jane Austen is able to show the importance of reading.
