Northanger Abbey

ISBN-13: 9780307386830
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: September 2007
241pp


First Sentence: No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.


This is the second book I read by Jane Austen. After reading and watching the movie adaption of Pride and Prejudice, the characters and the premise had imprinted on my mind; thus I am not sure if Northanger Abbey will live up to expectations as compared to Pride and Prejudice. However, I find such thoughts to be unncessary, for Elizabeth Bennet and Catherine Morland are heroines in each of her own way.

Since young, Catherine was fond of all boys' plays, and does not have much interest to music and art but that all changed when she reaches fifteen. However when she reached the age of seventeen, she has yet to catch a young amiable man fancy. But opportunity calls on her when she is asked to visit Bath with the Allen family, whom are friends of the Morland family. There she meets Henry Tilney and she falls in love with him, and at the same time she also befriended a young lady by the name of Isabella.

When General Tilney, Henry's father, invited Catherine to spend some time at Northanger Abbey, She is delighted for she has a passion for reading gothic novels and naturally, she is fascinated with the atmosphere of the old mansion. Imagine her thrills when she found locked cabinets and explored the dark passengers in the mansion; and adding to this mystery is the death surrounding the late Mrs Tilney as she let her imagination runs wild. As I read further, I came to realize that the things she discovered in the end is none of the supernatural sort.

Northanger Abbey starts off a little slow in the beginning, but the pace picks up towards the middle. I liked it that Austen created a gothic feeling in this novel; and the exchanges between Isabella and Catherine's brother, James, is also a joy to read. I was intrigued with some of the words being phrased though, particulary the word 'shew' as I had seen this being used several times throughout the novel. It then came to me that it is a variant of 'show' after reading the passages for a second time. Is it not amazing to find some words changed along with the time?


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