Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Blurb (on back of book): A wonderfully entertaining coming-of-age story, Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen's "Gothic parody." Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist.
The story's unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry's mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.
Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is a lighthearted, yet unsentimental commentary on love and marriage.
MY OPINION: *****
I think this is my favorite Austen.
Yes, I know that is a crazy statement. Yes, I know no one likes this one. Yes, I know that P&P exists.
But for some reason, I ate this one up. Everything about it spoke to me. I want to reread it again as soon as possible in print because I listened to it on audiobook but something about it had me riveted.
I have been meaning to get to this one all year and I'm glad I finally decided one day to just bite the bullet because otherwise, I would have missed out on this masterpiece.
This book is a fun twist on the classic Gothic novel (which we ALL know I love). It definitely had the general Gothic elements (creepy house, dour atmosphere, mystery surrounding dead person). But Austen made it FUN. She made it entertaining. She made it almost humorous at times. It's definitely not your classic "Frankenstein-esque" sort of story and I was all here for it.
Everything about this book felt so human. It really felt as if Austen had sliced open the brain of everyone resembling Catherine (or I guess everyone who Catherine resembled) and deep-dove into its darkest recesses to find the most vulnerable thoughts. I loved it. Catherine was definitely one of my favorite Austen heroines by far and I loved her. I feel like this book was everything I thought Jane Eyre would be (I'm sorry).
It starts out like any old Austen novel, with a main girl moving in with some random rich family, experiencing social life, coming-of-age, and attending balls and whatnot. She meets a man (because of course), Henry Tilney, who is literally delightful. I loved that man. He was funny, he was smart, he was witty. If I were Catherine, I would have been in love with him too.
I loved seeing all of the relationships, romantic and platonic, grow in this book. Isabella and Catherine's friendship was to die for. I love a healthy female friendship in which neither girl is slighted or shamed for anything. I also loved Isabella and James and seeing their romantic chemistry begin to blossom (to everyone's eyes but Catherine's). Frederick was... well. I choose to ignore.
We also always need the classic John character (queue Mr. Collins) who always seems to be in the way and can't take no for an answer. We love to hate these men. Even Catherine and Eleanor's unlikely friendship is beautifully-written.
It's not until Book II that we get to actually SEE Northanger Abbey (the Tilney home). Finally, after all this buildup, we arrive at the titular place. Catherine is a flighty, imaginative, seventeen-year-old girl caught up in the dreamlands of novels and the literature she consumes, so she often finds herself carried away by her imagination, a fact that is so artfully played with in this second half. We see her go through frets and frights about everything in the house that she imagines is something wicked or scary and I loved it. It was just so funny and so satirical in a way that I wasn't expecting from a novel marketed as Austen's "scariest."
I flew through this one. Maybe it's because it was on audiobook but I read it in a day. I loved it. If you haven't tried this one out before and have been hesitant due to the (strangely) lower reviews in comparison to P&P, I definitely recommend picking it up. It's definitely not the romance you would expect from Austen but it's so incredibly entertaining you won't want to put it down.
Main Character: Catherine
Sidekick(s): Henry, Eleanor, Isabella, etc
Villain(s): Imagination, Frederick (he is.), etc
Classic Elements: This is a piece of classic English literature.
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