Originally published in 1817 by John Murray
My edition: the gorgeous Penguin Clothbound
Classics hardback above
What’s
it about?
Catherine Moorland, one of ten
and a lover of Gothic novels, goes to Bath to stay with neighbours where she
meets Henry and Eleanor Tilney and is whisked off to Northanger Abbey. There,
her imagination blurs with reality and she becomes the heroine of her own
Gothic novel.
Why
now?
One of my reading goals of 2014
is to read the final three of Austen’s novels that I hadn’t read. Northanger Abbey is my second to last,
and hearing Bella (Cheezy Feet Books) talk about how good it is – my decision
of which one to read next was made!
The
verdict:
I have to admit that I knew
really little about Northanger Abbey other
than the names of the leading couple, Catherine Moorland and Henry Tilney, and
that it was the first novel that Austen wrote. It was lovely to go in blind.
Austen wrote Catherine’s story
between 1978-9 when she was only 23. Her youth and optimism is clear in Northanger Abbey and it sets it apart
from her later novels in atmosphere and style, though it still has Austen
signatures - misunderstandings, wild caricatures, a gentle mocking of English
class systems and characters you can’t help but fall in love with. Catherine is
a naive and bright heroine, though largely unextraordinary, and the same goes
for Henry: quiet and funny rather than stoic and distant and not traditionally
handsome and straightforward in his desires sets him apart from Darcy,
Wentworth, Knightley and Edward Ferrars and makes him, in my opinion, the most
up to date of Austen’s heroes. You could plant Henry in 2014 and the only thing
that would seem a little off would be his profession!
The major difference I noticed,
however, was in style. In Northanger Abbey
Austen talks directly to the reader. she is telling me the story of
Catherine Moorland, her trip to Bath where she meets the Thorpes and the
Tilneys and how it ends in an engagement. Sometimes this kind of narration can
pull you out of a story if it is too heavily emphasised, but I generally enjoy
it and there really is nothing like feeling that Jane Austen herself is telling
you a story.
There is actually very little
known about Austen as her sister Cassandra destroyed nearly all of her letters
so I loved getting this insight into her thoughts at the time. She is
particularly vocal on novels and Gothic literature in Northanger Abbey, and having taken a Gothic module at uni, I
actually knew the stories and the titles of the books that Catherine and Isabella
were reading! At this time, novels were a leisurely pastime for ladies and they
had no consequence; all of the important men read histories and informative
non-fiction. It felt a lot to me like the fight YA is having with literary
fiction at the moment... And yet Northanger
Abbey is a mock-Gothic novel. Austen turns the conventions of the Gothic
novel on their head to make her funniest novel, I think so, anyway.
One of the things I have come
to expect from Austen’s novels is a handful of genuinely frustrating and
two-faced characters and we get a whole bunch of them in Northanger Abbey. The Thorpes obviously take the top spot. Like
Catherine, I was initially taken in by bubbly, air-head Isabelle and gave her
chance after chance as she clearly didn’t mean what she said. WRONG. I took an
immediate dislike to the arrogant, slimy and rude John Thorpe though. I just
wanted him to go away so I could usher Henry into Catherine’s life instead!
They are the opposite of Catherine and the type of friends she needed. The
Tilneys are pretty damn awesome, though. I even respected General Tilney at
first, even through Catherine’s wild thoughts and accusations towards him, but
he turned out to be controlling and materialistic jerk as well!
General Tilney’s revelation that
he only encouraged his daughter’s friendship with Catherine because he thought
her rich and well-connected and then kicking her out of his house when he
realised that wasn’t the case made a really strong point about Regency society
and marriage. Every social situation, every visit, every nicety had a reason
behind it: securing a good reputation and a strong marriage. It’s actually
quite disturbing and the importance of achieving this for a woman is paramount.
And yet, as Northanger Abbey concluded,
there wasn’t any fanfare about the engagement, we didn’t even get to see the
proposal!
I didn’t expect to love Northanger Abbey, but I did. Though it
doesn’t match Persuasion or Sense and Sensibility for me, it was
thoroughly good fun and gave me a glimpse of Jane Austen in her younger years.
Still
not convinced?
- It’s Jane Austen; your
argument is invalid.
- It was the first of Austen’s
novels to be completed, but wasn’t published until after her death.
- Northanger Abbey is a mock-Gothic.
Sophie
Northanger Abbey was the first Austen book I read, and I think the only one I actually read all the way through! I loved it, I read it in secondary school and my librarian was very impressed :D
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