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narrativeleaves 's review for:
Northanger Abbey
by Jane Austen
She carefully opened the heavy wooden door, the lazy squeaking causing her hair to stand on its end. The slice of light slowly grew larger on the dark stoned pavement. She breathed the humid scent of nectarine while keeping her eyes down, until the slice was now 90º wide, moment on which she raised her eyes to find...
An empty room.
This is how Northanger Abbey sounds like. It is often referred to as a parody of the gothic. I think it is, in fact, more of a parody of impressionable young girls who hope to find in the real world everything they read. If Jane Austen lived in our time, this book would have probably been about impressionable teenagers looking for their sparkling vampire or something similar. However, one must take account of how this work also defends the legitimacy of reading gothic novels. Henry Tilney, the love interest, is in every aspect a virtuous man and admits on reading gothic novels and enjoying them to a great extent. But, despite his passion for gothic literature, he is the most reasonable person anyone can hope to find.
Now, Catherine, the heroine, is of a completely different breed. She is nothing more than a teen – she’s 17. The result of Henry teasing her results in her belief of potential horror scenarios that, overall, turn out quite disappointingly.
I think it a bit unfair to portray Catherine so childishly at times, perhaps because I remember too well being exactly like her and browsing woods and abandoned houses in the countryside when I was younger (younger than 17, more like 8 or 9, but still). There are not many happy moments in my adult life which surpass those on which I procured an adventure relentlessly as a kid. I sometimes wish I had stayed like that my whole life.
Other than this aspect, Northanger Abbey is no different from every Jane Austen book. It has been some years since I last read my last of Austen’s, but I also get the impression that this one is a much easier read than the rest. But the social critique is here and so is the happy ending, Austen never deceives the reader in this aspect! However, I might note this ending seemed rather rushed and it would have been nice to have had a more solid narrative in the last few pages.
An empty room.
This is how Northanger Abbey sounds like. It is often referred to as a parody of the gothic. I think it is, in fact, more of a parody of impressionable young girls who hope to find in the real world everything they read. If Jane Austen lived in our time, this book would have probably been about impressionable teenagers looking for their sparkling vampire or something similar. However, one must take account of how this work also defends the legitimacy of reading gothic novels. Henry Tilney, the love interest, is in every aspect a virtuous man and admits on reading gothic novels and enjoying them to a great extent. But, despite his passion for gothic literature, he is the most reasonable person anyone can hope to find.
Now, Catherine, the heroine, is of a completely different breed. She is nothing more than a teen – she’s 17. The result of Henry teasing her results in her belief of potential horror scenarios that, overall, turn out quite disappointingly.
I think it a bit unfair to portray Catherine so childishly at times, perhaps because I remember too well being exactly like her and browsing woods and abandoned houses in the countryside when I was younger (younger than 17, more like 8 or 9, but still). There are not many happy moments in my adult life which surpass those on which I procured an adventure relentlessly as a kid. I sometimes wish I had stayed like that my whole life.
Other than this aspect, Northanger Abbey is no different from every Jane Austen book. It has been some years since I last read my last of Austen’s, but I also get the impression that this one is a much easier read than the rest. But the social critique is here and so is the happy ending, Austen never deceives the reader in this aspect! However, I might note this ending seemed rather rushed and it would have been nice to have had a more solid narrative in the last few pages.