Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Northanger Abbey

I hate Mr. Thorpe with a BURNING passion. He is a selfish, shallow, and vile character that I will forever resent. Past that, the story was very interesting and fun, and Jane Austen wove Gothic writing very well with her typical regency-centered writing style.

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ayphyx's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

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funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was super good and so much fun. Even though it has the old language from the time it was written, it is so easy to understand the basic story. This has further endeared me to Jane Austen and I think everyone should read this book.

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bessadams's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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rinku's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Northanger Abbey is actually the first Austen book I’ve read, and I quite enjoyed it. It was just nice to read a book that isn’t too exiting or nerve-wrecking for once lmao.

This book follows Catherine who, after spending some time in Bath, falls in love with Henry but many stones are laid in their way in the course of the story. This novel was overall just relaxing to read which isn’t a bad thing inherently. In the conservations between Henry and Catherine that were really fun to read and made me chuckle a few times, they talk a bit about how non-fiction and fiction are viewed differently. It’s interesting how there are still people today thinking non-fiction is better/more intelligent than fiction.

The second part of the book was more interesting though where the finally go to the name giving Northanger Abbey that played a smaller part that I thought it would be. It was so fun to see how different the Abbey was from Catherine’s expectations. Everything is too normal for her taste that she even starts to imagine a murder

that never happened

. I read in one review that the book shows that the “real” monsters are the ones living among us aka people like the Thorpes. With this interpretation, I could enjoy the last part of the story even more.

Of course, you can see that the book is a child of its time. There’s a lot of misogyny and one instance of antisemitism. In general though, it was nice to read a book in this time period and thus learn what life for women was back then. Catherina was an interesting main character and towards the end, I really started feeling for her. Besides her, it was first a bit hard to keep up with all the characters introduced because many of them share the same surname. Furthermore, I find it really funny that even in books from 200 years ago, there are love triangles.

Northanger Abbey won’t be the last book by Austen that I’ll read. I of course have to read Pride and Prejudice one day, and I also want to watch the movie for Northanger Abbey since I can imagine the adaptation to be quite fun as well.

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mondovertigo's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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hailstorm3812's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I love this one. As a fellow nerd that can have trouble remembering life doesn't follow story beats, it's a relatable book. I always forget how invested I get in the Isabelle plotline but that really close slightly gay teenage girl friendship is always a hit for me. Always a fun time. It's also funny to see Jane Austen perfecting her love interest fake out she uses for most of the other books, but Catherine doesn't care for John at all, its just everyone else lol.

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diana_raquel's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."

From the six major novels of Jane Austen, to me, this is the odd one. Maybe because it's one of her early works, this is a little rough around the edges.

The first time I read Northanger Abbey, I thought it was a little odd but it had some charm to it. Still, I thought that this one would become my least favorite book by Austen. By then, I already had read the other five major novels, so this one was the least favorite because it was odd.

Now that I've reread Austen several times, I still think this is the odd one but it isn't my least favorite (that "honor" belongs to the irritating thing also known as Mansfield Park). At least, this one isn't impregnated with irritating and boring characters. Well, I absolutely detest John and find Isabella irritating, but I'm supposed to feel that way. He's the villain, she's the "fake friend", you're not supposed to like them. But, in Mansfield Park, you're supposed to like the Crawfords.

But, comparisons to Mansfield Park aside, to me this isn't a bad book. It simply lacks some characteristics that you expect in an Austen novel. The love story isn't the great love affair that you see in other works, and the pacing is a little wonky- more than half of the book is set in Bath, and we spent very little time in Northanger Abbey. To me, this is more a coming of age story, not a love story.

But I actually liked the satire and the social commentary. And it is a fun book, just don't expect it to be a masterpiece. I actually think this is a good book to start reading Austen or classics. It is entertaining and easy to read. So if you're looking for an introduction to classics or to the regency period in literature, this is a great way to start.

Final note: If you want to watch an adaptation of this novel, I recommend the movie adaptation of 2007 starting Felicity Jones and JJ Feild. It's a very good, faithful, and charming adaptation of this coming of age story. Perfect for a rainy day!

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