Northanger Abbey (original 1817; edition 2010)

3.5/5

I suppose that it's a mark of maturity that I can no longer enjoy something without stepping back and asking "Yes, but what does it all mean?". Either that, or I'm taking this reviewing business way too seriously. Anyways.

This is the first novel that Austen composed, and it shows. Many of the ideas that she wishes to share with her readers are good ones, to be sure, but her delivery of them is not in a coherently fictional form. Much of it felt as if the reader was being led around a science fair exhibit or artistic diorama by an overenthusiastic child; there was much to smile at, but not much to sink ones teeth into. It must also be taken into consideration that the writing could have really used some more editing, but whether this is the fault of the edition or the author is up to consideration.

Still. It was very adorable in a wittily amusing sense. Also, many of the critiques and comments were spot on when it came to themes such as popular views of women in society, the oftentimes conniving methods of ensuring matrimony, and most importantly the power of fiction. While it's true that the heroine formed some particularly peculiar opinions regarding reality as a result of her reading novels, the book also demonstrates that one need not read overly dramatic tales involving supernatural elements in order to make extremely poor decisions. In comparison to the amount of useless drama and antagonism that resulted from misguided rumors, the heroine's actions based on her choice of reading were almost sensible.

In light of all that, while the writing itself is a bit discombobulated and rather shallow, there's also a lot of entertainment and a decent amount of sense to be found. It's not Austen's best, but considering her later works, I'd say it was a promising start. ( )

Important as a comparison to her later works. you can see glimpses of Austen's future themes and pathways to better character development. I tended to get bored while reading it. ( )

This is my final Jane Austen book - the only one I hadn't read. It's definitely not up with my top three (Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion), but at the same time I did really like it. I'd probably place it on about a par with Sense and Sensibility (I didn't like Mansfield Park at all). There's something totally endearing about the whole thing, the satire being a little more obvious than in the others I've mentioned. I read somewhere that although this was the last book published, it was the first one she wrote? It definitely shows, particularly in the lack of subtlety, but it's no bad thing. The story is also notably slighter than some, but again, this isn't necessarily a critcism. It's just a completely different beast to the other books.

I loved Catherine. She was so charmingly naive, which is refreshing, given that Austen has a tendency towards very knowing protagonists. She's a little younger than her typical protagonist, which probably accounts for this somewhat, but I just liked her being a little less streetwise than perhaps Elizabeth or Emma (who obviously had their own blind spots, but that's for another review). I felt some elements of Henry's character weren't really fleshed out properly - I couldn't really "see" him the way I could see Knightly or Darcy, for example - but, again, given that this is more of a straightforward story than the others, it was kind of acceptable. I do wish Eleanor's affair had been a little more fleshed out, but again, I mostly put that down to the youth of the author at the time.

John Thorpe (who I kept accidentally calling Iain in my head - sorry, Iain!) was a complete git, which I know was the intention, and made me really, really angry. I find it a little annoying when authors use a set of crossed wires to (in particular) keep couples apart, but the few instances of this are resolved pretty quickly, so I can't complain too much.

In comparison to most other things, this is definitely five stars. I only gave it four because it's not quite a classic Austen, but a very good one nonetheless! ( )

I really couldn't stand Pride and Prejudice, when I read it, a fact I've made no great pains to disguise. But I was determined to get all the way through a Jane Austen book without chucking it across the room at any point, and Northanger Abbey made this easy on me. The tone of the novel is quite fun, and it was quite easy for me to see the cleverness and wit of the author I'd heard so much about and hadn't liked or noticed very much in Pride and Prejudice. Any complaints I might have about the character -- her ignorance, her silliness -- are sort of necessary for the plot to proceed as it does. I think if the novel had been much longer, I'd have got a bit sick of the tone, but it was just the right length, I think. ( )

Northanger Abbey is about Catherine Morland, an average girl and avid reader of gothic romances, and her adventures vacationing in Bath and visiting friends at their home, Northanger Abbey. To say more than that is to give away plot points.

According to the introduction to this edition, Northanger Abbey is the earliest of Jane Austen's published novels but the last to be published, and even then it was published posthumously. I could tell this was an early work of hers, because her sarcasm and social commmentary is much more obvious and pointed than in the other Jane Austen books I've read. This was still a decent book, but I much prefer Austen's sly, subtle barbs to this transparent disdain for social climbers, silly rules of etiquette and propriety, and the gothic romances of her time. ( )