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In this modern retelling of Austen's classic, bookish minister's daughter Cat Morland joins her well-to-do friends in Edinburgh and falls for an up-and-coming lawyer who may harbor unsettling secrets.
dizzyweasel: Another book in The Austen Project, wherein popular contemporary authors take on Jane Austen's novels and "update" them for the modern world. Not as wonderful or as complex as the originals, but fun re-imaginings.
A modern day retelling of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey that doesn't work. It's been years since I read Jane Austen's original, but my feeling about her is that her style of writing and her insights about her characters matter more than the plot. While McDermid probably does a clever job of updating and moving the action to a modern setting, something is lacking.( )
There were some fun elements to this contemporary version of Northanger Abbey, but ultimately it didn't wow me. Bella and her stupid slang drove me crazy, and I was glad when Cat was finally got away from her and went to Northanger Abbey. Once she was there, though, I felt like the vampire suspicions hadn't been well enough developed, and I wasn't really seeing many sparks between her and Henry. The latter may be true to the original. I don't think he really revealed his feelings for Catherine until the end in Jane Austen's book either. It's been 19 years since I read the original, but I remember loving it and spending the next few months reading the rest of Jane Austen's novels. This book didn't really inspire me to read more in the Jane Austen project, even though some of the updates-Cat's obsession with paranormal romance and the references to social media-were well done. ( )
I love Val McDermid. I love Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. I couldn't get into this retelling -- partly because it is a retelling, so I have a pretty good idea what the plot is and I don't think it updates well. I would absolutely feature it in a display of retellings, because it is solidly done, I just don't care to finish it myself.
To Joanna Steven, constant reader, constant friend, who is indirectly responsible for introducing me to the delights of the Piddle Valley.
First words
It was a source of constant disappointment to Catherine Morland that her life did not more closely resemble her books.
Quotations
Cat, as she preferred to be known—on the basis that nobody should emerge from their teens with the name their parents had chosen—had been disappointed by her life for as long as she could remember.
Henry gave her a wolfish grin, revealing small, sharp teeth. His eyes looked almost tawny in the afternoon light, like a lion stalking prey.
'Pleased to meet you,' he said, head cocked as if assessing her for the pot.
Satisfied that he wasn't a gay man in disguise, Susie tucked a hand under Cat's arm.
If Cat had not had her own lively interest in her surroundings to preserve her, she might have lost the will to live entirely.
Luckily, Bella required little input from her companion when it came to conversation. She knew enough of the world to entertain both and Cat was sufficiently well brought up to provide the appropriate prompts.
No man would notice her outfit except when it revealed too much; no woman would be happy unless they could find something to criticise.
Anticipation is often the enemy of pleasure; our sights are set so high that disappointment is inevitable.
'It must be lovely inside your head, always attributing your good-hearted motives to everybody else.'
'You're like a terrier,' Henry said. 'You don't let go of a subject till you've shaken every last drop of significance from it.'
Henry's smile had the uncertainty of a man who is not sure whether he's tweaking the tail of a cat or a tiger.
Deciding this was quite the maddest conversation she'd ever had, Cat thought it wisest to humour him.
And what would a vampire do to a wife he no longer loved? Would a disease of the blood be the perfect cover?
For a moment, she thought her heart would explode in an incendiary mix of shock and delight.
Last words
The moral or message of this story is hard to discern. And that is as it should be, for as Catherine Morland found out to her cost, it is not the function of fiction to offer lessons in life.
In this modern retelling of Austen's classic, bookish minister's daughter Cat Morland joins her well-to-do friends in Edinburgh and falls for an up-and-coming lawyer who may harbor unsettling secrets.
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4
The protagonists don't behave like modern day people. The vampire angle is not believable.
Good ideas, but lacking in execution.