Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

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Chapter descriptions are designed to be very vague and cryptic. They are for people who are familiar with the book to help them find the chapter they want, and they are not designed for the student who might be looking for a quick way to get out of reading the novel.

Chapter 1 -- An unlikely heroine is introduced, educated, and brought alone for an adventure.
Chapter 2 -- Preparations for a trip. A crowded ball full of strangers. Gratifying public acknowledgment of Catherine's charms.
Chapter 3 -- A gentleman is introduced and lively conversation ensues. An irrational smirk, an examination of muslin, and the importance of journal-keeping.
Chapter 4 -- Old friends and new friends meet. A very close friendship is established.
Chapter 5 -- The friendship is advanced. ~~Novels are love.~~ The joys of novel-reading.
Chapter 6 -- Two friends meet in the pump room and discuss men: fictional, absent, and present.
Chapter 7 -- Brothers and sisters. "Oh D-- it!" A scintillating discussion about gigs. Predilections emerge.
Chapter 8 -- Another assembly. The hero returns! And brings his sister! Catherine is twice plagued by terribly tragic timing and is very (silently) distressed.
Chapter 9 -- A tiresome drive. A man is decided to be quite disagreeable company.
Chapter 10 -- A more sensible sister is met and unwittingly confided in. A cotillion ball! A contract of mutual agreeableness is established. Bath's amusement and the intellectual poverty of the country. Another handsome strange is introduced.
Chapter 11 -- A walk is given up in favor of a driver to a romantic castle. A young woman is tricked! Catherine is mad and sad.
Chapter 12 -- Two attempts at apology; one is successful. A charming artlessness that many a Henry cannot be insensible. Catherine appears to have won over Team Tilney.
Chapter 13 -- In a scene extremely gratifying to the reader, Catherine employs her lessons learned and is unable to be persuaded, commits a small act of impropriety, and avoids a larger one.
Chapter 14 -- A delightful morning walk, with "nice" conversation. Tormenting historians are successfully defended. An ignorant woman is charming and a sister laments that her brother cannot be serious.
Chapter 15 -- Isabella has news, and detests grandeur. John proposes to try a song; Catherine cannot sing.
Chapter 16 -- A disappointing dinner. A handsome captain arrives and pesters a young lady until she will dance with him. Isabella receives disappointing news from James, and Catherine (only temporarily, for she is not clever) wonders at the real source of her friend's disappointment.
Chapter 17 -- Miss Tilney forms a very bold wish. Catherine is favored beyond every other human creature. Henry Tilney! An Abbey!
Chapter 18 -- A disconcerting meeting in the pump room. Isabella is not her usual self.
Chapter 19 -- A woman in love with one man cannot flirt with another. Henry Tilney must know best.
Chapter 20 -- The bustle of going is not pleasant, until Catherine joins Henry (dashing in his greatcoat!) in the curricle. Poor Matilda! An anticlimatic arrival at the Abbey.
Chapter 21 -- An imagination runs wild on a stormy night; repose must be absolutely impossible.
Chapter 22 -- Catherine is humbled to the dust. She also has just learned to love hyacinths. Taken on a tour of the grounds, she comes to find another object of intense interest, and works herself up into a state of virtuous indignation.
Chapter 23 -- A rather dull house tour (save for the greatcoats). The late Mrs Tilney is promoted from murdered to merely imprisoned.
Chapter 24 -- Catherine opens the forbidden door! Remember that we are English! Dearest Miss Morland, what ideas have you been admitting?
Chapter 25 -- A distressing letter. Dearest Catherine, beware how you give your heart!
Chapter 26 -- A wonderful Wednesday at Woodston! Catherine encounters the most comfortable and prettiest rooms in the world!
Chapter 27 -- A letter provokes ire. Such a strain of shallow artifice cannot impose even upon Catherine. Catherine is complimented out of bitterness.
Chapter 28 -- The general leaves for London. A loss may sometimes be a gain. The general abruptly returns. The nominal mistress of Northanger Abbey is a most unwilling messenger. Catherine leaves the Abbey.
Chapter 29 -- The heroine returns in an unceremonious manner unbecoming of a novel. She is ineffectually comforted by her family.
Chapter 30 -- An unexpected visitor raises the spirits of a Useless Catherine (and saves her from more education). A heart already given is happily claimed.
Chapter 31 -- One marriage allows for another! A happy ending is given to the most deserving of suffering women. The mystery of the washing bills is solved! And everybody smiled. To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well.

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