First time reading this book. I'm willing to hear the other side of this, but for me, if it misses the mark it misses only in a narrow way. I believe we would apply the word 'experimental' to a book like this nowadays. There is so much to dig about the portrayal of her characters for me to complain much. (As an aside: I also noted an echo of the Shakespearean pragmatism in the last line!) The book is impressive. The texture of it, the myriad of voices, Catherine's powerful and overwhelming imagination, and Henry's perception and 'thinking' as he speaks--he narrates, observes, flirts, and corrects his and Catherine's conclusions often in a single paragraph.
I have always loved this novel. I empathize with Catherine, and identify with the way books play such a meaningful role in her inner dialogue. And I appreciate how Austen both overtly and subtly comments on the then popular notion that novels were both frivolous and dangerous. Catherine was both misled by gothic romances and attuned to the threat that powerful men posed to young (naive) women. She wasn’t wrong to sense a threat at Northanger. It’s also interesting to see the ways Austen revised the novel in later years; the layering in of free indirect speech (and maybe thought) is readily identifiable.
Truthfully, I found the book a bit boring. But being new to reading Austen, Northanger Abbey did help me better understand how Austen writes and thinks. I came away impressed with Austen’s ability to make me care about Catherine. Elizabeth and Elinor were easy to root for in a way that Catherine isn’t it. But something about the way her naivety is explained makes me feel for her. Like I’m looking back at my ignorance at 17, slightly grimacing, but with empathy for the emotional swings and how hard it was to navigate nonobvious social norms. On social norms, the ways she pulls them from the background for commentary has made me more aware of the norms I had been unwittingly following in my own life. Glad to have it read it and feel like I better understand Austen even if I found it a bit dull.
First time reading this book. I'm willing to hear the other side of this, but for me, if it misses the mark it misses only in a narrow way. I believe we would apply the word 'experimental' to a book like this nowadays. There is so much to dig about the portrayal of her characters for me to complain much. (As an aside: I also noted an echo of the Shakespearean pragmatism in the last line!) The book is impressive. The texture of it, the myriad of voices, Catherine's powerful and overwhelming imagination, and Henry's perception and 'thinking' as he speaks--he narrates, observes, flirts, and corrects his and Catherine's conclusions often in a single paragraph.
I have always loved this novel. I empathize with Catherine, and identify with the way books play such a meaningful role in her inner dialogue. And I appreciate how Austen both overtly and subtly comments on the then popular notion that novels were both frivolous and dangerous. Catherine was both misled by gothic romances and attuned to the threat that powerful men posed to young (naive) women. She wasn’t wrong to sense a threat at Northanger. It’s also interesting to see the ways Austen revised the novel in later years; the layering in of free indirect speech (and maybe thought) is readily identifiable.
Truthfully, I found the book a bit boring. But being new to reading Austen, Northanger Abbey did help me better understand how Austen writes and thinks. I came away impressed with Austen’s ability to make me care about Catherine. Elizabeth and Elinor were easy to root for in a way that Catherine isn’t it. But something about the way her naivety is explained makes me feel for her. Like I’m looking back at my ignorance at 17, slightly grimacing, but with empathy for the emotional swings and how hard it was to navigate nonobvious social norms. On social norms, the ways she pulls them from the background for commentary has made me more aware of the norms I had been unwittingly following in my own life. Glad to have it read it and feel like I better understand Austen even if I found it a bit dull.