Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen

Catherine Morland is not wealthy nor poor. The family gets by quite nicely without needing extravangances. Mr. and Mrs. Allen, their neighbors in Fullerton, take annual trips in February to Bath for the waters. Catherine is 17 and they take her with them. This is Catherine's first exposure to society away from Fullerton.

She is enchanted. The first few days in Bath were somewhat lonely because there was no one Mrs. Allen knew in Bath at the time. Then they met the Thorpes. Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Thorpe had gone to school together as girls. Isabella Thorpe, the oldest Thorpe daughter, and Catherine became immediate friends.

Catherine meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanore as well as Isabella's older brother, John. Isabella meets Catherine's brother James and Mr. Tilney's older brother, Captain Frederick Tilney. Romance surrounds them all.

Jane Austen wrote this book tongue in cheek. It is a romance, of course, and things work out for Catherine. Austen often writes from the author's point of view to the reader/audience, commenting about the heroine, the expectations of the characters, and how a different (referring to the popular gothic romances of the time) author whould have handled the current situation in his or her book.

I had to remind myself this book was written about 200 years ago, then published in 1818 after her death. The insipid conversations between Catherine, Isabella, Mr. Thorpe, Mr. Morland, and Mr. Tilney in the Rooms were facetious to my 20th century ear. I'm hoping she did this as part of the satire she was using against the gothic novels at the time. (I don't remember language this simple in any of her other works I read.) After Catherine left Bath and visits with friends the language, while still simple, no longer grated on my nerves. The book does not have much depth. Yet it is still good reading, if you have read some other Jane Austen first.

This book is in public domain so can be read on line at many places, or can be borrowed from your library.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope