Northanger Abbey or as I like to call a lesser Jane Austen novel



I found a picture that made me think of Northanger Abbey

It's been almost a month since I have blogged last, and I have read a few books but I have been busy with my summer class so I will finally put together a review for Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen which took me longer to finish than I would have imagined for an Austen novel since 1) it shorter than her other novels 2) I love a Austen novel. However, I was disappointed with the novel. It was Austen's first novel and that shows. It took me longer to finish, her later works, especially Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are so much better but since this is her first work, Austen gets some slack. I mean, we are still reading her novels in the 21st century. What have I done? Frankly, I have no reason to critique her work, I am a lowly pleb!

Well, this lowly pleb will critique Austen anyway! Northanger Abbey is apparently a parody of the Gothic novel genre that was popular during Austen's time and she even name drops a few of them, such as The Monk by Matthew Lewis (which I also read, I think I have a review for that one). The main character, Catherine Morland, is a feisty, (mostly) level-headed, romance reading and Gothic novel obsessed girl who heads to Bath to party the winter away with her aunt and uncle (and possibly find a husband). There she meets her new best friend, Isabella Thorpe, who wants to set her up with her brother John (who is absolutely smitten by her) and Catherine falls in love with Henry Tilney. John Thorpe weasels his way to spend time with Catherine, at the expense of others and even talks ill of Catherine's brother James, who has fallen in love with Isabella (and Isabella, we think, loves James. The story is full of Austen's satirical references and plenty of wit. It also lets us see a less polite side of society, where a woman openly misbehaves in public and Catherine doesn't hide her feelings for the dislike of others.

The story does feel like two stories that merge into one, with the light hearted romance and fun in the first part of the novel and the latter part full of Gothic "horror" where nothing seems to go right. While these are not my favorite characters and Isabella and John Thorpe are in the running as the most annoying characters (along with Lucy Bennett), any Austen fan will love this novel.

I give it 3/5 stars.

I will soon do a review of a play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I finished and I am also still reading Nicholas Nickleby and An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin. Once I finish Martin's book, I will plow through Dickens and finally finish Nicholas Nickleby. Until then, happy reading!