Northanger Abbey - Book group discussion thread

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Neal Jul 2019 11:21pm, 25 Jul 2019 80 posts	0 Neal ???? Indeed. Curiosity made me look at them: it seems there is a cleaning product by the name of "Halo".
Serendippily Jul 2019 8:24pm, 27 Jul 2019 13,415 posts	0 Serendippily So it’s about 20yrs since I last read this. The first 50 or so pages the sarcasm really is layered on with a trowel, not much subtlety and a bit gauche. But it becomes sweeter, the revelation of her gothic idiocy is toe curling and the last line is very satisfactory. It’s been a while since I read anything from this particular era and the sense of being trapped and observed is clearly portrayed, as is the contrast between the banality of most conversations and that of the Tilneys. Enjoyed it.
Jambomo Jul 2019 8:44pm, 27 Jul 2019 6,853 posts	0 Jambomo It’s been a while since I read this, mainly because it is my least favourite Austen novel. I wonder if Austen was trying to do something along the lines of Emma, a flawed character that readers maybe wouldn’t immediately warm to but would love in the end. Whilst I did warm to Emma, I never warmed to Catherine very much, I just found her too silly and naive to like or care much about. That said, the story isn’t the worst and I actually like the gothic feel and references to Gothic literature such as Radcliffe and Burney. It was because of this book that I ended up Reading Matthew Lewis’s ‘The Monk’ which I really enjoyed and recommend 😊
Serendippily Jul 2019 9:58pm, 27 Jul 2019 13,416 posts	0 Serendippily Ah well I think Emma is adroit and entitled and too clever by half. The line about “always doing more than she wished but less than she ought” sticks with me Catherine at the start seems something of a trope to demonstrate the mores of polite society and the relentless marriage scheming. But by the end I think Austen touch was becoming more deft and subtle and I can see why the Tilneys would become fond of Catherine. Austen doesn’t spell out her sarcasm so much in later books, you can tell it’s an early book, but I like the way Catherine is something of a sweet nonentity
Serendippily Jul 2019 10:05pm, 27 Jul 2019 13,417 posts	0 Serendippily I don’t think I explained that well I love Emma but she is the embodiment of the most popular girl in her class: I like Persuasion too and P&P but the heroines are the brightest or the best. Catherine is easy to overlook as the book is more about society than her. But I am glad she has a happy ending without too much worthy suffering she’s a nice (nice!) contrast
Sharkie Jul 2019 10:31pm, 27 Jul 2019 14,998 posts	0 Sharkie Er I'm not a lit crit type but I think it's important to remember that Catherine is a teenager. She's 'very' young and naive. (And yes of course it's a very early work and the whole thing is not going to have the subtlety of Persuasion or (yawn) Mansfield Park.)
Diogenes Jul 2019 9:26am, 28 Jul 2019 38,897 posts	0 Diogenes And also that it is a parody/pastiche of the popular style of the time.
Serendippily Jul 2019 9:59am, 28 Jul 2019 13,423 posts	0 Serendippily Yes I’ll take that. The social commentary is there in ?all her books but not nec the parody. I learned a new word too: Rodomontade
The Scribbler Jul 2019 4:14pm, 30 Jul 2019 4,433 posts	0 The Scribbler As a lot of Austen adaptations focus on the romance and the faults of her characters, I think that some of the wit and sarcasm of her writing gets forgotten. The start of Northanger Abbey is almost a parody of itself with a very self conscious and sarcastic author's voice commenting on our heroine as she introduces her, and all the ways in which she falls short of heroine tropes of the time. In later novels Jane Austen will do this more subtly. She is at times wonderfully bitchy... but you have to read her more carefully to catch it. Catherine is a bit of a vanilla character, with only her vivid imagination and general kind nature to mark her out. JA writes much more rounded female characters like Elizabeth Bennet, Anne Elliot and Emma Woodhouse in her later novels. Henry, I can't help but feel may be influenced by Jane Austen's own brother Henry and I wonder if he teased for her love of Gothic novels and a tendency when younger to imagine all sorts of horrors. I said I get Northanger Abbey mixed up with Mansfield Park, and re-reading it I can see why. There's a quiet and unassuming heroine, transplanted to a rich and well to do society in which her friend flirts with and encourages two suitors at once. It was good to read this again, if only to show how much JA develops as a writer.
westmoors Aug 2019 10:32am, 4 Aug 2019 3,438 posts	0 westmoors Having finished this I still can't decide if I've read it before or if, like Scribbs, I'm getting it mixed up with Mansfield Park. Although I have read several Austen novels I wouldn't describe myself as a fan.