] I just did a six-novel search, and Northanger Abbey is apparently the only book that refers to novels (by the word "novel"), horrid or otherwise. Does anyone happen to know if a character in one of JA's other works makes reference to a novel by title, or is NA the end of the line?

] PS: I'm know this might be borderline Austenuations, but thought it might be an interesting aside for the group read...

We can talk about this on Austenuations more, if people really want to get into this topic.

Like Catherine and Isabella, Harriet Smith is also partial to the writing of Ann Radcliffe: she has read The Romance of the Forest and is trying to get Robert Martin to read it as well. He, according to Harriet, has already read The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith. JA makes a slight allusion to him in NA, when, in her 'defense of the novel' she makes a reference to the 'nine-hundreth abridger of the History of England' for Goldsmith had come out with a publication by this title in the 1770s and JA owned it.

I think that Northanger Abbey is allowed to be the 'most literary' of JA's novels, in the sense that it mentions more works specifically by name. Mostly there are just comments on whether or not the characters like to read or not. Mr. Collins, for example, says he never reads novels.