Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
4 stars
This is Jane Austen's first novel, although it was published last, after her death. In her forward, she is obviously a bit miffed that the publisher who bought the novel she wrote in 1803 never published it, so she bought it back in 1813. That's why her references throughout the book to other authors and their novels are outdated, she explains. Of course you don't have to be familiar with the low-brow Gothic novels popular at the time, and which she spoofs, to get the point of her satire or to enjoy this novel.
The protagonist of Northanger Abbey is Catherine Moreland, age 17, among the youngest in the large brood of a clergyman and his wife in a small English village, and who devours Gothic novels. She is just growing out of her tom-boy stage and now fancies herself to soon be a heroine, as she believes real life is the same as life depicted in her soap opera type books.
The Moreland's neighbors, the Allens, are a wealthy childless couple and are especially fond of Catherine. When they decide to take the doctor's advice and go to Bath, a popular hot springs resort of the time, for Mr. Allen's health, they invite Catherine to go with them. She's never been away from home before, so she does a lot of growing up through her experiences at Bath and later at Northanger Abbey.
Soon after arriving at Bath, the naive and gullible Catherine meets Isabelle Thorpe, whose brother happens to be a classmate at Oxford of Catherine's older brother. The Thorpes are manipulative and incapable of telling a truth. Their mother is a widow with limited finances and they're determined to marry into money, setting their sights on Catherine and her brother. While pretending to be her friends, they make more than a little trouble for Catherine.
Much of the satire of Gothic novels comes from the witty dialogue of Henry, another young man Catherine meets at Bath, as he teases her about her reading matter and her inability to separate fact from fiction. While at Bath, she's easily manipulated by the Thorpes with the promise of a tour of a real-life Gothic castle, just like the ones in her books. Later at Northanger Abbey, which is really no more than a former abbey renovated into a modern and very nice family home, she fancies herself to be a Gothic heroine about to solve a murder as she searches wardrobes, chests and secluded rooms.
After nearly three months away, Catherine returns home wiser but heartbroken and dejected. "Live and learn," her mother says, just as mothers are still saying nearly a hundred years later. But Mrs. Moreland is proud of her newly-matured daughter, telling Mrs. Allen that Catherine has proven she can now "shift for herself."
After much sadness, duplicity and several misunderstandings, all ends romantically and happily. There's even a Gothic style twist thrown in.
Family tag = 2 points
Satire tag = 3 more points
Review = 5 points
Additional links = 3 points
e) Same genre -- Romance
f) Same country -- England
g) Additional bond -- both are tagged as 1001 books you must read before you die
Previous total = 58 points
Today's total = 13 points
NEW TOTAL = 71 POINTS
