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A review by raguel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
3.0
I think my middling rating is in part due to my own ill-informed expectations, but also in part due to the execution of the plot. I thought this would be a spoof of a gothic novel. Instead, it’s a spoof of a gothic heroine. The novel captures the highs and lows of teenage joy and angst so well, but Catherine spends so little time actually at Northanger Abbey, and there is very little that is a spoof of a gothic plot. Any wild imaginings of Catherine’s get dispelled almost immediately.
The time Catherine spends in Bath drags along, especially with a manipulative friend like Isabella for company. And indeed, the other side characters are largely uninteresting. Perhaps this is because we are seeing them through the eyes of a dramatic teenage girl who only has eyes and attention for Henry and his sister Eleanor, but it still made all the conversation amongst the side characters particularly boring. I can’t help but compare the conversation of the groups in this book to those in Emma, where the characters and their discussions are a delicate comedy of manners - a game that everyone must continue to play. In this book, there is no such commentary, and the innocuous conversations are more boring because of it.
I enjoyed Catherine’s growth through the novel. She matures in more ways than one. Her realization that life is not, in fact, like a Gothic novel, is mostly humorous (except when Henry rightfully scolds her for sensationalizing his mother’s death). Her maturation regarding seeing people for who they really are, particularly Isabella, comes more slowly and only through the extended company of more reasonable people (Henry and Eleanor). Her ability by the end of the novel to not only see through Isabella’s schemes and theatrics, but also to be indifferent to them, is in stark contrast to her gullible, malleable start.
The romance between Catherine and Henry was not as strong in this book as the romance is in other Austen novels, but I think that’s because this book, more than some others, is a coming-of-age tale. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that of the five Austens I’ve read (P&P, Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, and Emma), the first three are less about coming-of-age and have more romance (Marianne Dashwood being the notable exception to this), and the latter two have less romance and are more about coming-of-age. Even in Emma, though, I was able to look back in hindsight and see occasions where Mr. Knightley was actually jealous about Emma, or was secretly pining for her. This is not the case in Northanger Abbey. In fact, Catherine spends more formative time with Eleanor than Henry, and it was hers and Eleanor’s friendship that I thought to be the strongest relationship in the book.
The time Catherine spends in Bath drags along, especially with a manipulative friend like Isabella for company. And indeed, the other side characters are largely uninteresting. Perhaps this is because we are seeing them through the eyes of a dramatic teenage girl who only has eyes and attention for Henry and his sister Eleanor, but it still made all the conversation amongst the side characters particularly boring. I can’t help but compare the conversation of the groups in this book to those in Emma, where the characters and their discussions are a delicate comedy of manners - a game that everyone must continue to play. In this book, there is no such commentary, and the innocuous conversations are more boring because of it.
I enjoyed Catherine’s growth through the novel. She matures in more ways than one. Her realization that life is not, in fact, like a Gothic novel, is mostly humorous (except when Henry rightfully scolds her for sensationalizing his mother’s death). Her maturation regarding seeing people for who they really are, particularly Isabella, comes more slowly and only through the extended company of more reasonable people (Henry and Eleanor). Her ability by the end of the novel to not only see through Isabella’s schemes and theatrics, but also to be indifferent to them, is in stark contrast to her gullible, malleable start.
The romance between Catherine and Henry was not as strong in this book as the romance is in other Austen novels, but I think that’s because this book, more than some others, is a coming-of-age tale. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that of the five Austens I’ve read (P&P, Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, and Emma), the first three are less about coming-of-age and have more romance (Marianne Dashwood being the notable exception to this), and the latter two have less romance and are more about coming-of-age. Even in Emma, though, I was able to look back in hindsight and see occasions where Mr. Knightley was actually jealous about Emma, or was secretly pining for her. This is not the case in Northanger Abbey. In fact, Catherine spends more formative time with Eleanor than Henry, and it was hers and Eleanor’s friendship that I thought to be the strongest relationship in the book.