false 50398 231 From cover: "A wonderfully entertaining coming-of-age story, Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austens Gothic parody. Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist. The storys unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henrys mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art. Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is the most lighthearted of Jane Austens novels, yet at its core this delightful novel is a serious, unsentimental commentary on love and marriage." 4039699 book 1818 Northanger Abbey total:18742|5:3867|4:6583|3:6326|2:1682|1:284| 18742 68293 25617 1611 5 17 false false Wed Jun 13 17:16:29 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 19 01:09:49 -0700 2007
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 Wr...more...]]> 5 17 false false Fri Dec 19 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 03 14:29:44 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 19 14:58:20 -0800 2008
The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics,"...more...]]> 3 5 false false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Jul 09 13:01:58 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 10 09:44:09 -0700 2007
As it turned out it was a pleasant surprise.

The foreword says ...more...]]> 5 5 false false Mon Mar 16 01:57:19 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 01:57:31 -0700 2009 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 rathe...more...]]> 5 4 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1994 Sun Dec 23 09:07:33 -0800 2007 Sat Jan 05 09:55:33 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 6 false false Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 1996 Tue Jul 08 06:41:11 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 08 06:45:01 -0700 2008 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 ima...more...]]> 4 3 false false Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Thu May 24 07:54:10 -0700 2007 Thu May 24 08:00:22 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false true Tue Mar 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 24 18:19:46 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 27 07:43:00 -0700 2008 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 Auste...more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Jan 16 17:31:40 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 02 16:13:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 02 16:18:46 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 21:02:02 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 01 02:53:23 -0700 2009 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, ...more...]]> 1 2 false false Mon Mar 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 02 19:12:25 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 02 19:15:56 -0700 2008 3 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jan 23 13:43:42 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 23 15:11:13 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 19 20:41:34 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 19 20:42:45 -0800 2008 Northanger Abbey (Sunday on PBS), I reread the book.

I haven’t read Northanger Abbey for several years. With the passage of time, my mind had warped its content. In my memory, the book consists mainly of Catherine Morland’s fantastical ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 13:13:58 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 06 03:08:15 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jan 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 11:51:12 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 11:51:53 -0800 2008
favorite quotes:


Chapter 4

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.



Chapter 5

The progress of the fr...more...]]> 2 1 false false Thu Apr 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 19:42:13 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 08:33:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jan 08 13:57:16 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 14:00:09 -0800 2009 4 1 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Thu Apr 26 07:41:17 -0700 2007 Thu Apr 26 08:03:50 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Apr 16 13:51:46 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 14:00:34 -0700 2008 Northanger Abbey’s style isn’t as polished as other novels, but the story is a kick. “If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.” Young Catherine Morland heads to Bath for a holiday with neighbors, and there forms an assortment of new acquaintan...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Thu Jul 26 20:39:32 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 26 20:39:32 -0700 2007 more...]]>