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Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen

Start date: September 2, 2014

Finish date: September 30, 2014

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Aug 07, 2011 Greer rated it liked it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I picked this up after reading Atonement because it is quoted at the opening of that book. There are some similar themes here regarding the potentially destructive power of imagination -- after ingesting a steady diet of gothic novels, the heroine Katherine Morland suspects the father of her love interest Henry Tilney has gotten away with the murder of his wife. However, this being Austen rather than McEwan, the end result of Katherine's foolishness is embarrassment rather than tragedy. Particul I picked this up after reading Atonement because it is quoted at the opening of that book. There are some similar themes here regarding the potentially destructive power of imagination -- after ingesting a steady diet of gothic novels, the heroine Katherine Morland suspects the father of her love interest Henry Tilney has gotten away with the murder of his wife. However, this being Austen rather than McEwan, the end result of Katherine's foolishness is embarrassment rather than tragedy. Particularly humorous is a scene where Katherine snoops in a mysterious cabinet expecting to find hidden letters, and instead stumbles across nothing more exciting than a laundry list.

Like Briony in Atonement, Katherine is a young girl with better knowledge of books than people, leading to her assumption of wrongdoing where none has occurred in the case of General Tilney, and of good character where it is obviously lacking in her friendship with the self-absorbed, fickle social-climber Isabella Thorpe. By the end our heroine has grown and become a better judge of character, as evidenced by her ability to see through Isabella's machinations and her realization that while General Tilney is a run-of-the-mill snob rather than a murderer, her uneasiness in his company was not unfounded.

The ability of a lie to ruin lives is another similar theme between the two books. Katherine comes from a comfortable although not wealthy background. Based on exaggerations by Miss Thorpe's boorish brother John regarding the wealth and social position of Katherine's family, which were made for his own self-aggrandizement and desire to form a connection with Katherine, General Tilney pursues her for a daughter-in-law. In the most emotionally affecting section of the story, General Tilney subsequently ejects Katherine unceremoniously from his house without explanation when a spiteful John Thorpe changes his story to make Katherine's family appear not only of little means, but profligate and scheming (in short, he gives them the character of the Thorpe family). However, in Austen's world all's well that end's well -- Henry Tilney is able to expose Thorpe's lies and eventually convinces his father to consent to his marriage with Katherine.

Austen excels at portraying what I think of as the banality of evil. General Tilney is not a murderer, but he is horrid in his fixation on social status and wealth, and feels perfectly justified in standing in the way of Katherine and Henry's happiness. Isabella Thorpe encourages Katherine's brother James to propose to her, breaks the engagement when a richer target appears, and then sends a disingenuous letter requesting Katherine's help in recovering James' affections when her schemes fail.

Austen's books retain their relevance for the modern reader due to her keen knowledge of character and her wit in depicting human foibles. Customs may change but human nature is much the same. ...more

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