Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

 

Northanger Abbey

by Jane Austen

We all know the basic premise of any Jane Austen novel: the heroin in grand society (a lady, but not necessarily of comparable means to those she interacts with) meets a man and falls for him through a series of misadventures with him, his family, her own family and friends, and society at large. There is the inevitable backdrop of town versus country with a lot of commentary on social manners and settings. All very picturesque and full of Austen's biting wit.

Northanger Abbey is no exception. This book, Austen's first real attempt at a novel even though it was last to be published, was originally called Susan. This makes sense when reading the book, in that the bits about the Abbey only appear toward the last third of the book. Mostly the story is about Catherine Morland meeting and falling in love with Henry Tilney when she is on holiday with friends in Bath.

Catherine, newly beautiful and feminine, meets Henry and his sister while engaged with her friend Isabella at several balls. Isabella's brother, John, is enamored with Catherine and makes many attempts to usurp her time, inserting himself into situations with her where he can boast about himself and his glorious attributes. Catherine puts up with it since her own brother is attempting to be engaged to Isabella. Through miscommunication John Thorpe proposes to Catherine and thinks she has accepted, but she has her eye on Tilney the whole time. Thorpe's attempts prove useless, and Catherine is invited to Northanger Abbey to stay for a couple months with Henry's sister, Eleanor, and his father, the General.

While at Northanger Abbey Catherine feel as if she is being brought into the Tilney family and that the family is wooing her to become engaged to Henry, which is what she wants. But General Tilney eventually throws her out of the house. Catherine is told that Thorpe had lied to the General about her family, saying they were extravagantly wealthy, which made the General think she would be a perfect match for Henry. When Thrope's engagement attempt was thwarted, he changed his story and told the General he was mistaken, and Catherine's family was, in fact, dirt poor. Henry visits Catherine at her home in Fullerton and tells her what happened and asks for her hand in marriage. And they live happily ever after.

This was not Austen's best novel, and definitely reads as a first attempt. But it is full of humor and Austen's patented commentary about the ridiculousness of the wealthier classes. It has fun elements relating to novels, reading, and story itself. At times the language was a little clunky and over-wrought, but it is an easy and light read. I give Northanger Abbey 3 stars.