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Northanger Abbey

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 106,320 ratings · 4,409 reviews

Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen's amusing and bitingly satirical pastiche of the 'Gothic' romances popular in her day.

Catherine Morland, an unremarkable tomboy as a child, is thrown amongst all the 'difficulties and dangers' of Bath at the ripe age of seventeen. Armed with an unworldly charm and a vivid imagination, she must overcome the caprices of elegant society, encoun...more

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Published April 29th 2008 by GetDigitalBooks.com (first published 1817)

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Jan 07, 2013 Jeffrey Keeten rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

NOVELS.
Let us leave it to the Reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at their leisure, and over every new novel to talk in threadbare strains of the trash with which the press now groans. Let us not desert one another, we are an injured body. Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried. From pride, ignorance, or fashion, our foes are almost as many a...more

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Jul 19, 2007 Claire rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-happy-books, five-stars

I have a confession to make.

Secretly, I much prefer "Northanger Abbey" and "Mansfield Park" to anything else written by Jane Austen, even "Pride and Prejudice," which we're all supposed to claim as our favorite because it is one of the Greatest Books Ever Written In the English Language. I don't DISLIKE "Pride and Prejudice," but I just don't think it stands up to this one. I'm sorry, but it's true.

"Northanger Abbey" feels like two very different stories that eventually merge into one at the end...more

120 likes · like · see review

Oct 29, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, 2012, books-about-books, boston-janeites, in-by-of-england, romance-with-a-capital-r, jane-austen-made-me-do-it

I love Jane Austen. I'm a squealing fan girl. It's no secret. I'm a card-carrying, lifetime member of Jane Austen Society of North America, so it pains me to say that this book isn't everything that it could be. It's got so many problems, I wouldn't hold it against anyone, even Vladimir Nabokov, if they decided to rail about it ((view spoiler))...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Jason Koivu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Whereas Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma are swathed in petticoat layer upon layer's worth of love and relationship intrigue, by comparison Northanger Abbey wears but a thin veil. The satirical jabs are still present and as enjoyable as usual, but there is a lack of depth to the characters, their exchanges and the plot density expected in an Austen novel. Add in its gothic elements and it becomes Bronte-esque...eeewwww! But that is no doubt the point, this being Austen's atte...more

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Oct 26, 2011 Ceridwen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gothic, janeites, rule-britannia, books-about-books, reviewed, what-would-scooby-do

There are many things wrong with the film adaption of Pride and Prejudice which stars Kira Knightly, the most obvious of which is tone. Though Austen is often mistaken for a high Romantic, thrown in with the Brontës with their wild passions and Gothic styles, rainstorms and moors are not Austen's purview. Her plots and characters are based on social realism or caricature; her sensibility is of the satirist. Darcy does not stride out over the morning grass with his coat unbuttoned, and Elizabeth...more

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May 14, 2013 Aubrey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-06-12, 1000-guardian, on-hand, reality-check, 3-star, reviewed

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 scienc...more

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May 24, 2007 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: jane austen fans, young women

Shelves: fiction, brit-lit, regency, mawwiageiswhatbringsustogethertoday, 19th-century

This is one of the lesser regarded Austens. It has nowhere near the fan club that the Holy Trinity of Austen (Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility) has. It's one of her first books and it's true, the prose and development of characters is not as mature. The book is more of a homage/satire of Gothic lit, mixed with the comedy of manners style that she would be famous for later.

But I LOVE this book. Seriously, this book is so wonderful. The voice on this book. In later books, Jane A...more

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Dec 19, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the label.

Book #24: Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (1818)

The story in a nutshell:
Although not published until after her death in 1818 (but more on that in a bit), North...more

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Oct 20, 2010 Abigail rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Jane Austen Fans / 19th-Century Novel Readers

Shelves: literature-classics

Review Temporarily Removed.

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Jul 10, 2007 Boz4pm rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was with some trepidation that I started this. I feared the worst, but also hoped that time, age and the changes in me might mean I could better appreciate what it was about this author that appeals to so many.

As it turned out it was a pleasant surprise.

The foreword says this book is perhaps not the most polished of all of Austen’s works. It was one of the earliest she wrote, yet was published after she had died. She did not go back to edit it the same way that she did with other books. This...more It was with some trepidation that I started this. I feared the worst, but also hoped that time, age and the changes in me might mean I could better appreciate what it was about this author that appeals to so many.

As it turned out it was a pleasant surprise.

The foreword says this book is perhaps not the most polished of all of Austen’s works. It was one of the earliest she wrote, yet was published after she had died. She did not go back to edit it the same way that she did with other books. This shows: the end is rushed and the book very clearly falls into two ‘halves’.

Catherine, the lead character, is instantly likeable. I was pleased to finally be able to discern the infamous ‘Austen wit’ that I’ve heard so much about but never yet been able to find in my brief attempts with her in the past. For all she is the innocent, the naïve, the good, she is naturalistic in all those things.

So too Isabella (the false friend) is not over the top in her awfulness to the point that the reader loses patience. She is wonderfully, subtly horrible. She’s not wholly conscious (though some of the time she clearly is) of some of the things that fall out of her mouth, how they come across, what they say about her; though her attempted manipulation of the situation between James and Captain Tilney is very deliberate. The best moments of wit surround her and her brother.

Henry Tilney – the hero of the piece – is truly wonderful. He’s a gentleman in the truest sense. He’s witty, charming and thoroughly good and kind. Even with the episode in his mother’s bedroom, he behaves very well given the circumstances. Indeed, that whole business one of the weaker moments. She seems so different to the girl we’ve seen so far. Up till that point she’s taken people on face value, not thought to second guess them at all or suspect them of dissembling. Yet, the moment she hears that General Tilney’s wife is dead she leaps to the conclusion he murdered her.

Yes, the premise is that she is young, has an over-active imagination and has read one too many gothic novels but we need to see more of that side of her in Bath, basically. We are told it exists, but have no opportunity to really see it work until that point and it not only comes a little out of the blue, but goes to such an extreme as to seem faintly ludicrous. (But then, that is the point, I suppose).

That said, the moment when Henry guesses at what she’s been thinking is truly awful. I gasped. Out loud. And his little speech to her – basically telling her in no uncertain terms that she’s a complete idiot, though in the kindest possible way – is heart-stopping. That he reacts the way he does, however, shows him in a very good light, and is a good plot device. It is odd that Austen has him simply never refer to it again, though.

That said, there was part of me – the part that if I had read this book fifteen years ago would not have understood this at ALL – that thought ‘yeah, some girls/teens can be like this.’ It’s where the difference of years shows that I can read this, understand it and enjoy it, whereas some years ago I would have considered it utterly preposterous.

At the end of it all, Catherine is much more mature. It is then that, as a reader, you can see the journey Austen has tried to lead her on, and why: the naïve, too-innocent girl has to grow into a more aware, more sensible woman to be worthy of Henry’s love.

The ending is rushed and is something of an anti-climax. We have had 28 chapters to cover only a few weeks and then we have the engagement, the explanation, the ‘deus ex machina’ marriage of Elanor to a man we’ve never met, a year passing and Catherine’s marriage all in the space of a chapter. It’s faintly unsatisfactory. It does not completely detract from the whole, though.

All in all: a good read. (less)

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Mar 16, 2009 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

Having read both Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion I was a little surprised by this one. The first thing that surprised me was that the heroine is basically as thick as they come. I would have said that Austen is the sort of writer who creates the sort of main female characters that men are rather likely to fall in love with. I mean, I know women who go all weak at the knees over Mr Darcy, but when compared to Lizzy he is merely a sad shadow.

All the same, Catherine is hardly what I would have t...more

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Helen (Helena/Nell) Oh I love this novel. Northanger Abbey is one of my favourites.

I don't think Catherine is thick. She is simply a person who has taken literally the me...more Oh I love this novel. Northanger Abbey is one of my favourites.

I don't think Catherine is thick. She is simply a person who has taken literally the message of the popular 'gothic' novels in vogue at the time. Jane Austen is showing the ultimate danger of believing in the world of the imagination.

She's showing the danger of the pulp fiction of her time. It is a great satire. It is a novella version of James Thurber's 'The Macbeth Murder Mystery', except Jane Austen got there first. Interpret real life according to the rules of horror fiction and what happens?

Catherine only does what she has been trained (by her earnest reading of popular fiction) to do. Edgar can love her because she is very young (17 is she not?) and good-hearted and naive and manages, in the end, to fall in love with him despite all the misleading messages she has got from her favourite reading. And in fact, those misleading messages do very nearly get in the way of their romantic union, I seem to remember.

So Austen isn't sending up novels. She is sending up popular novels while writing something very different -- which is the point. 'Northanger Abbey' is the typical title of a gothic novel of its time. Contrast that with 'Pride and Prejudice' or 'Persuasion'. It is an anti-pulp-fiction manifesto, done with delight, charm and great good humour. Because actually Jane Austen liked the idea of light reading, reading to satisfy the spooky imagination, just so long as it was kept in its place. You can't send up a genre that you don't already know well yourself. There are references in this book to many of the popular best-sellers of the time: contemporary readers would have picked them up and chortled.

And when she wrote this, she was having fun -- she really was. You are meant to laugh at it, and you are meant to laugh because you know the conventions she's poking fun at, as well as the human weaknesses concerned. And you're meant to like and forgive Catherine, because she is young and trusting. Look at what kind of family she's come from -- hardly a literary one. How did SHE know that novels were all tripe?

But then real life drama is happening to her brother. Does her brother die? I can't remember. Something serious happens to him, I'm sure.

This is a novel in which our heroine starts as a kid and ends as a woman - more or less. But on the way, there is an entertaining reminder of all the absurd conventions of horror fiction -- which still, by the way, obtain. One naive female heroine, inevitably isolated with a candle (or torch). Then the light goes out. Sigourney Weaver does this in Alien , but without any of the laughs.

I take my hat off to Austen. And for her, this was just a wee entertainment, a five finger exercise, in terms of what she was to go on to do...(less)
updated Mar 17, 2009 03:48pm

Trevor I could see all of the mock gothic stuff, but I've never really read any of it myself, so all the references were going to be hidden to me. Although,...more
Mar 18, 2009 04:57am

Helen (Helena/Nell) Yes, I think you're right.

I first read it when I was seventeen. I thought it was hilarious...

I should probably read it again next year, which will be...more
updated Mar 18, 2009 02:28pm

Apr 04, 2011 Kwesi 章英狮 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, jane-austen, 2011

This is my second Austen book and I really enjoyed it. Yes, I enjoyed it but there are parts that bore me to death, like trying to force me down to bed. I enjoyed how Austen wrote every conversation the characters trying to deliver, they are graceful, with intent and very unique. I'm not used the way they speak and maybe if somebody heard me talking like Catherine maybe people will laugh at me or get annoyed easily. But one thing that really attract me most was Austen's Catherine, she's not girl...more

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Jan 05, 2008 Skylar Burris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, romance

When I first read Northanger Abbey as a teenager, I thought it little more than a clever, entertaining parody on the gothic romance genre, and a rather captivating romance story itself. Upon my second reading, however, I now see it only secondarily as a parody, and primarily as a satire on the duplicitous nature of civilized man, including (but not limited to) an exposé of the games courting men and women play. Northanger Abbey is very well written, and though it lacks the subtlety of Austen’s l...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Megan Baxter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's like Madame Bovary, except that in Northanger Abbey, reading fiction isn't a fatal affliction. It doesn't ruin women for life. It does incline the main character to flights of fancy, but she remains rooted in the real world and in real emotion.

Northanger Abbey is, says the commentary in the book, one of the most accessible of Jane Austen's works. I'd have to agree. It is much livelier than her other works (which is not to say that I don't like her other books, because I do.) But Northanger...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Luann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, audio, 2011, fiction

I really wanted to like this! In the beginning, I thought it would be a 5-star book for me. I thought it might turn out to be my top favorite Jane Austen. But somehow it just didn't turn into the book I thought it was going to be.

Things I liked:
* I enjoyed all the talk of novels and reading - and would have liked even more of that.
* The conversations between Henry Tilney and Catherine Morland were my favorite parts of the book. I might go back and reread just those parts sometime.

Things I didn'...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Nicola rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cover-appeal, classics, library-books, austen, romance, 1001-books

This review can also be found here on my blog.

Well, this book is slightly unpolished and probably would have benefited from a couple more rewrites (particularly the narration at the ending) but in terms of characters, plot and wit? It was absolutely perfect!

I really enjoyed the narrator for the most part. I liked the little snippets of opinion she put in every so often- it's so unusual for the reader to actually be addressed by the narrator- and I thought it worked well for the majority of the...more This review can also be found here on my blog.

Well, this book is slightly unpolished and probably would have benefited from a couple more rewrites (particularly the narration at the ending) but in terms of characters, plot and wit? It was absolutely perfect!

I really enjoyed the narrator for the most part. I liked the little snippets of opinion she put in every so often- it's so unusual for the reader to actually be addressed by the narrator- and I thought it worked well for the majority of the book. I felt she got a bit out of hand towards the very end and would have preferred more dialogue as opposed to a general report of how it ended up but for the rest of the book, the narrator was really quite excellent!

(view spoiler)

Catherine's character really grows throughout the whole book and is developed so well. So many things happen that make her realize the world isn't as black and white as she thought and that people can be deceiving. She learns that the real world does not work like it does in fiction!

Most of all though, it was just funny! It's so light-hearted and full of wit. I especially loved Mr Tilney's story of what would happen to a typical Gothic novel character at the time and everything that Catherine did after that. The whole novel was very witty and it had me smiling throughout.

This is the third Jane Austen novel I have read and I liked it every bit as much as I liked Pride and Prejudice. (less)

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Jul 08, 2008 Martine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Jane Austen fans and girlish girls

Shelves: british, eighteenth-century, romance, gothic, film

Penguin calls Northanger Abbey 'the most youthful and optimistic' of Jane Austen’s romances. I'm going to be slightly less generous myself and call it the most immature of her major works. While the story about a seventeen-year-old girl who is led astray by false friends and her own overactive imagination is delightful, the way in which it is told is in some regards quite immature. So is the heroine herself, who sadly doesn't really work for me. As far as I'm concerned, sweet and naïve Catherine...more Penguin calls Northanger Abbey 'the most youthful and optimistic' of Jane Austen’s romances. I'm going to be slightly less generous myself and call it the most immature of her major works. While the story about a seventeen-year-old girl who is led astray by false friends and her own overactive imagination is delightful, the way in which it is told is in some regards quite immature. So is the heroine herself, who sadly doesn't really work for me. As far as I'm concerned, sweet and naïve Catherine Morland would have made a superb secondary character in any of Austen's other novels, but as a protagonist in her own right, she strikes me as being rather inconsequential. Nor is her romance with Henry Tilney (who is definitely among Austen's more endearing young men) very memorable. It is neither intense and passionate (like Marianne Dashwood and Mr Willoughby's) nor ever-lasting (like Anne Eliot and Captain Wentworth's) nor a sparring match between two sophisticated equals (like Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy's). Rather it's an uneventful minuet between an affable young man and a silly young woman in which the young man's affection, in Austen's own words, originates 'in nothing better than gratitude ... in other words ... a persuasion of her partiality for him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought.' It's an original premise, as Austen herself points out ('the credit of a wild imagination will at least be all my own'), but when it comes to central romances, I think I prefer grand and passionate to original and mundane.

The lack of a mature heroine and a great central romance isn't my only problem with Northanger Abbey. While the light-hearted tone of the book and the witty authorial voice definitely have their charms, I have to admit to finding the humour a bit too farcical at times, and the parody (inspired not just by the Gothic novels identified in the book but also by Smollett and Fielding) a little over the top. Call me dull, but I prefer the subtle, dignified satire of the more mature Austen to the rather burlesque and eighteenth-century humour on display here. I guess I've always been more of a nineteenth-century person than an eighteenth-century one. I'm glad Jane Austen eventually became one, too. :-)

Needless to say, Northanger Abbey also has plenty of merits. As a commentary on society, it's as good as anything Austen wrote later, if (again) a little less subtle. As a portrait of friendship, too, it is excellent; the juxtaposition of Catherine's friendship with the infuriatingly selfish Isabella and John Thorpe on the one hand and the perfectly agreeable Henry and Eleanor Tilney on the other is very successful. And yes, overimaginative teenage girls, gold-diggers and tyrannical paters familias will always make good subjects for a satirist, so kudos to Austen for recognising their potential and making the most of it. She was definitely onto a good story here; I just wish she had had the time to revise it before she died, as she was planning to. No doubt the combination of her youthful imagination and later grasp of story-telling techniques would have resulted in a great classic. As it is, it's just a nice book -- in Catherine's sense of the word, not Henry's.(less)

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Aug 07, 2011 Kathryn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: re-reads, classics

Although Catherine Morland is not exactly Austen's most sparkling female protagonist, Henry Tilney, the hero of this novel, is witty enough for both of them. He's not often present, however, so the real entertainment value of the book resides in its clever parody of Gothic novels. Previous readings of this book left me a little dry but I must have been paying closer attention to the plot points and characterizations rather than the overall satirizing purpose of the book which Austen clearly deli...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd forgotten just how funny Northanger Abbey really is. Listening to it on audiobook this time around gave me plenty of opportunities to laugh out loud and the reading by Juliet Stevenson was truly superb. It is a shame that Austen didn't get to revise Northanger Abbey before her death as she had intended to. It is without doubt a weaker novel than her masterpieces: the ending is rushed and the two distinct threads of the novel don't meld together that convincingly. However, it is splendidly fu...more

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May 11, 2008 Misty rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, favorites, own, jane-in-june

Austen-ites tend to look down on this one as the lesser of the six, but this is one of my favorites because it is so fun and light. It's breezy, and this may sound weird, but I think it most shows what Jane would have been like as a friend.

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Nov 30, 2012 Sheila rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, boxalls-1001

I behaved badly to a friend.

And then there was this book, and like some beacon the image of Henry Tilney scolding Catherine Morland immediately came to my mind, adding another layer of self-awareness to the sometimes painful, sometimes liberating remembrance of the event.

In Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia, the young hero Jesse jokes about getting a gut transplant to deal with his fear. I have a preferred elective medical procedure myself that I discovered years ago from the movie Eternal Sunsh...more

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May 20, 2010 Joel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dailylit, 2010, 52-in-2010, classics

This is the first Jane Austen I've read. I picked it because it's short, it was available in email installments from dailylit.com, and I'd read a review here on goodreads that suggested it was basically a 19th-century cross between chick lit and Mean Girls.

I actually... really liked it. It's only very slightly boring, which is a huge compliment, considering I've often found reading anything written before, oh, 1900 to be an awful chore. And it's actually surprisingly funny. Not anything to laugh...more

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Dec 31, 2009 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Though all of Jane Austen's books are unique in their own right, "Northanger Abbey" stands out from the rest as being the closest Austen gets to outright comedy. It is famous for being a parody of the overwrought gothic romances that were popular in her day (the imagination boggles at what she might have achieved had the Twilight series been available to her), but Ms. Austen is not content with mere parody. In a brilliant twist, the parody becomes the thing that is parodied. With a battle betwee...more Though all of Jane Austen's books are unique in their own right, "Northanger Abbey" stands out from the rest as being the closest Austen gets to outright comedy. It is famous for being a parody of the overwrought gothic romances that were popular in her day (the imagination boggles at what she might have achieved had the Twilight series been available to her), but Ms. Austen is not content with mere parody. In a brilliant twist, the parody becomes the thing that is parodied. With a battle between the forces of good and evil and a young woman's soul at stake, "Northanger Abby" IS a gothic romance, but it has been stripped of the gloomy trappings and ridiculously evil villains. In its place is the banal, subtle, everyday type of evil which is all the more terrible and dangerous for its ordinary quality. This may not sound like much of a comedy, but Ms. Austen deftly alternates between the seriousness of her subject and the satire. The results are often hilarious and had me laughing out loud.

"Northanger Abbey" tells the story of Catherine Morland, a young lady on the verge of adulthood who is obsessed with gothic romances. When we meet her, Catherine is about to embark on a journey to Bath with a wealthy friend of the family. Naive, impressionable, and aching to live out the adventures she reads, Catherine is the daughter of a churchman with a comfortable income and a large, loving family. At 17, this is her first excursion from her home and first introduction to society. In Bath, she attends balls, the theatre, the baths, and meets a number of people, including Isabella Thorpe, her brother John, and the Tilney family; Henry, Eleanor, Captain Frederick Tilney, and their father, the General. Among them, competing interests and designs for Catherine are played out and she, on her own for the first time in her life, must learn who to trust.

Isabella and Catherine quickly strike up a friendship based mostly on their mutual love of gothic novels, while John tries to impress her with what he considers to be gentlemanly airs. These two, in a manner reminiscent of the Crawfords of Mansfield Park, conspire to win Catherine for John. Though not as malicious as the Crawfords, John and Isabelle are nevertheless manipulative as they try to seal the match. Initially, Catherine is protected by her naivete, being completely clueless about the game they are playing. Slowly, though, she begins to realize that the Thorpes are not all she took them for. As always in an Austen book, manners reveal the underlying character of a person, and the manners of John and Isabelle betray a shallowness and selfishness that true nobility would eschew. As Catherine learns who the Thorpes are, she takes the first of several important steps toward growing up and seeing the world for what it really is.

She begins to spend more time with the Tilneys, particularly Henry and Eleanor. Well mannered, honest and reserved, yet somehow still playful, the Tilneys genuinely are what the Thorpes pretend to be. As their relationship deepens, Catherine is invited to spend time at their estate, Northanger Abbey. She accepts and accompanies them, a move which is seen as a rejection of the Thorpes. John takes the move personally and reacts vengefully by lying to General Tilney about Catherine. This lie will threaten a budding romance between Henry and Catherine, who are both unaware of his machinations.

The Tilneys, with Catherine, return to Northanger, and here the parody goes into overdrive. Dark and foreboding at night with locked rooms, mysterious passages, and cryptic messages, Northanger Abbey is everything Catherine's overstimulated imagination could ask. She sees mystery and potential evil in every cupboard and sheet covered cabinet. Her fears and suspicions are aroused and heightened much to her delight. Here is the adventure she has longed for since she began reading the likes of "The Mystery of Udolpho".

In the light of day, however, the cupboards and cabinets are empty, the mysterious passages lead to ordinary places, and the cryptic letters turn out to be laundry lists. As she discovered with the Thorpes, Northanger Abbey is not all it appears. She is strangely disappointed, but this discovery is another step in her growth from a child to an adult. It is not the last, and the disappointment does not yet put an end to her overactive imagination, for there is another mystery lurking in the halls of Northanger, a real mystery regarding the death of Henry and Eleanor's mother.

As Catherine investigates Mrs. Tilney's death, she discovers that there is real evil in the world, but it is unlike anything she has read, and it is even found in her own imagination. The lies of John Thorpe will haunt her, and she will face shame, humiliation, and real danger at the hands of the General. But with the aid of the true friends she found in Eleanor and Henry Tilney, Catherine will finally put aside the childish thrills of the gothic romances of her youth and be prepared to take her place in the real world as a real woman.

"Northanger Abbey" was a delightful read for many reasons. Catherine Morland may be one of the sweetest characters that Ms. Austen created. She is kind, loving, trusting, and completely without guile. Her chief flaws are that she is too impressionable and given to flights of fancy, both of which tend to lead her astray. She has all the makings of a fine woman, and the reader is pleased to watch as her potential is realized.

In the Tilneys and the Thorpes, Ms. Austen found perfect vehicles to illustrate the forces competing for the soul of Catherine. The Thorpes are superficially fascinating and attractive, but their beauty ends there. Henry, with his sweet but sensible sister Eleanor, provide Catherine with the example she needs of what it means to be a noble man and woman. Henry Tilney is a model gentleman without being an unrealistic ideal. He, too, has his flaws that he must overcome in order to take his proper place in the world.

I have remarked in other reviews on the beauty and excellence of Ms. Austen's writing, so I will not belabor the point here, except to say she does not disappoint in the least. Any fan of Jane Austen will be thoroughly satisfied with "Northanger Abbey". Any newcomer will be enchanted. Just remember that her books are as unique as the characters themselves. Though they share many common themes, no two Austen novels are alike. That is part of why I enjoy them so much.(less)

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Mar 27, 2008 Summer Owens rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: all-time-favorites

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This review has been cross posted at http://summerreviews.blogspot.com

After reading Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility time and again over the years, I thought I should finally delve into the other novels of Jane Austen.

Northanger Abbey was one of Jane Austen's earlier novels, having been written around 1798. It was ready for publication in the year 1803, but the publisher it was sold to, never published it. Austen was able to repurchase the manuscript in 1816 but it was not pu...more This review has been cross posted at http://summerreviews.blogspot.com

After reading Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility time and again over the years, I thought I should finally delve into the other novels of Jane Austen.

Northanger Abbey was one of Jane Austen's earlier novels, having been written around 1798. It was ready for publication in the year 1803, but the publisher it was sold to, never published it. Austen was able to repurchase the manuscript in 1816 but it was not published until after her death in 1818.

I began this book without any prior knowledge of it's characters or plot. By the fourth chapter I found myself thoroughly interested in the life of Catherine Morland. Her innocent and cheerful manner seemed actually contagious. Many of the worries and drama she faced, though so obviously unimportant and silly, had me anxious for a speedy resolution. Of course credit for this must be given to the writer, for I am still more than a little surprised at how well I like Catherine Morland.

She has not the depth of feeling or character that some of Jane's other heroine's have and yet it is precisely this naivete that endears her character to me. There is much of Catherine Morland that I would like to be myself.
To be a cheerful and innocent minded woman, yet able to speak up for herself when the situation truly demanded it (Catherine's prior engagment with Miss Tilney) was admirable indeed. I was very afraid of her allowing her so called friends to push her around and was in agony in the first instance when John refused to stop the carriage after he had lied to her about Mr. and Miss Tilney driving off.
But where others could not physically prevent her from doing that which she knew to be right, she stood firm.

As to her imaginings about the General, I have myself imagined even grander schemes at times. Though I may not have been so quick to admit such a scheme to Mr. Tilney in her situation, once done I would have reacted the same way. There are many times I realize how silly my thoughts or actions have been through the perspective of another and I'm glad her mortification did not get in the way of her being sincerely sorry.

In this book Catherine ends a much more knowledgeable woman than when she was first introduced to us. Her perspective on human motivations has broadened considerably in a rather unfavorable manner, yet she seems the same generally cheerful Catherine she was at the start. Certainly she is sad and cries at times over supposed losses of acquaintance and affection but she is quick in recovery and continuation of life. And to retain cheer and hope in the face of affliction is something we should all strive towards.(less)

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Jan 02, 2008 Holly Goguen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

I'm not even done and I'm already in love with this book. I can't believe Jane wrote this so young. I was quite surprised to find so much truth still to be found in a comparison of personality types between her age and ours. While we do not share the strict social guidelines governing all interactions, we still have the same lessons to be learned in friendships and relationships as the heroine found herself schooled in. Witty, charming, her emotions and social situations leap off the page and en...more

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May 22, 2009 Cecily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Spirited Catherine Morland, at 17, samples the delights of Bath society, along with the pressures and betrayals that go with it, mixing with those more wealthy and educated than she is. At times her imagination runs away with her (it all gets rather gothic), but at other times, she takes things at face value and doesn't see the obvious, which is part of her charm, both to the reader and some of the men she meets. The ending is much too abrupt, and personally I am not very keen on Austen's occasi...more

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May 14, 2013 Meli rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Siempre me gusto este libro porque creo que es extremadamente diferente e innovador. Es más que una novela romántica, tiene algo de critica, tiene algo de parodia y mucho sarcasmo. No se parece a ningún otro libro de esta autora, y creo que es el más ameno de todos ellos.

Por un lado, Jane pasa completamente por alto el protocolo de la sociedad londinense, incluso se burla de él. Por otro se descarga de lo lindo sobre varias cuestiones, sociedad, críticos literarios, lectores y novelistas. Inclus...more

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Feb 26, 2011 LeAnn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed Austen's Northanger Abbey, perhaps partly due to the fact that I'd mistakenly thought it must be less good than her other novels, all of which I've read. Certainly there aren't a-thousand-and-one sequels, prequels, adaptations, and movies of it, are there?

However, I think I understand. Northanger Abbey is less a romance than a satire of Gothic romance. It's witty authorial commentary on the progression of the story and the action of the characters made me laugh out loud, but I r...more I really enjoyed Austen's Northanger Abbey, perhaps partly due to the fact that I'd mistakenly thought it must be less good than her other novels, all of which I've read. Certainly there aren't a-thousand-and-one sequels, prequels, adaptations, and movies of it, are there?

However, I think I understand. Northanger Abbey is less a romance than a satire of Gothic romance. It's witty authorial commentary on the progression of the story and the action of the characters made me laugh out loud, but I rather suspect that a reader hoping to become immersed in an unfolding love story would find these bits of commentary distracting.

I'm less certain about Austen's intents regarding the enjoyment of popular novels. Clearly, the hero, Henry, mocks and abuses them, yet he's familiar with them enough to understand their conventions and attractions. In addition, while he points out their negative influence on Catherine, the heroine, who suspects his father of murdering his mother, he doesn't appear to judge her for her folly (although the implication is that she needs to grow up and not mistake a good yarn for real life). Finally, there are the brother-and-sister duo who nearly wreck Catherine and her brother James's chances for happiness through their conniving, selfish actions. One makes a list of books she clearly cares little about reading and the other admits to never reading at all.

As for Henry, I loved him. He reminds me a bit of Mr. Knightley, who points the error of her ways out to Emma, also subject to an overactive imagination concerning the people around her. But Henry has a sharper tongue--he's sarcastic and ironic, yet in a good way. That is, it seems to be his response to the shallow, self-serving, materialistic society he finds in Bath. As with Mr. Knightley's love of Emma, Henry values Catherine for her warm, open temperament and ability to recognize and feel remorse for mistreating others, if only in thought. He also doesn't hesitate to act upon his convictions and stands up to his intimidating father on Catherine's behalf, just as Mr. Knightley says that all right-thinking men should do when commenting on the behavior of Frank Churchill.

Interestingly, Henry is a minister. A woman in the Austen book club of which I'm a member goes out of her way to claim that Austen's general views on churchmen are negative (she also thinks Austen's books are populated with deficient or non-existent parents, but I suspect she hasn't read any YA literature in decades, if ever). Henry offers the strongest evidence yet that this Austen reader is mistaken. Austen's father was a parish priest. Given how supportive he appears to have been of her (he allowed her open access to his library, encouraged her in her writing, and even submitted one of her novels to a publisher on her behalf), and that three of her heroes (besides Henry, there is Edmund in Mansfield Park and Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility) all obtain a "living" as Anglican priests, I doubt very much that Austen intends to make a statement about churchmen in general. It seems more reasonable to me that Austen poked fun at individuals of all sorts who are vain, shallow, not self-aware, greedy, selfish and self-aggrandizing, moralizing, and snobby. She has as many worthless young people as parents and priests. In fact, if I draw any conclusions from her stories, it is that the majority of society deserves the brunt of her mockery and that fortitude and a great deal of luck only allowed the worthy few to find happiness.
(less)

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Apr 01, 2009 Ayu Palar rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ayu by: Sherien

Shelves: classics, austen

I so feel connected with Catherine since people often say I am over-imaginative, like the heroine in Northanger Abbey. I personally think the mystery element makes the novel more interesting. Northanger Abbey as the setting also gives some Gothic element to the novel. Not really into Gothic stuffs, but sometimes it is needed to add the thrill. However, I would say the plot is kinda flat. I could not find the rising action and how the conflict ends. I don’t even comprehend what the conflict reall...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Simona Bartolotta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classici

La persona, uomo o donna che sia, che non si diverte a leggere un buon romanzo, dev'essere intollerabilmente stupida.

Come hanno detto in molti, non sarà una Elizabeth Bennet, non sarà una Emma Woodhouse, ma ho amato fino in fondo la piccola, fantasiosa, ingenua Catherine Morland.
Ah, la Austen non si smentisce mai!

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About Jane Austen

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.

Austen lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family located on the lower fr...more

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