Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Publisher: Starbooks Classics Publishing (2013)

210 pages, eBook (Purchased Myself for $1.99)

Book Rating: 5 Stars

Content Ratings:

Violence: Mild-Moderate-Brutal

Swearing: Clean-Light-Filthy

Sexual Content: White-Pink-Red

Summary:

Catherine is a naive young woman from a small village with an overactive imagination, made worse by excessive reading of novels, which gives her unrealistic expectations about what she may encounter when she is invited by a wealthy neighbor to join them in the pleasures of Bath.

My Thoughts:

Catherine relies heavily on the information she’s gleaned from fictitious stories, and though I wouldn’t necessarily say she is stupid, she is most definitely ignorant and easily fooled by the crafty people she is exposed to in the larger society of Bath. Of all of Jane Austen’s novels, this story contains characters of a more coarse/crass nature (John & Isabella Thorpe, Captain Tilney) that make Austen’s other villains look almost decent, and certainly a great deal more polished. Upon leaving her home and her small village, Catherine is on constant lookout for the beginning of her adventures, expecting things to unfold as they do for the heroines in the books she’s read. As her experience of the outside world increases she begins to see that her expectations of people and events, as derived from books and the small society of her village, are unrealistic, and though she still doesn’t gain enough insight to be deemed really intelligent, she does at least seem to learn to be more cautious of people and circumstances; so I think this story could be classified as a coming-of-age story, as well as a gothic romance. Great read, especially when contrasted with other gothic romances, such as The Mysteries of Udolpho (which is heavily referenced in this story).

Edition Notes:

This Starbooks Special Illustrated Edition with Literary History and Criticism is the best ebook version of Northanger Abbey that I’ve found. It is organized for optimum maneuverability, is prettily arranged, very readable, includes illustrations by the Brock brothers combining the illustrations from their various editions, and includes the literary history and criticism section from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. For a standalone copy, this is it, but if you are looking for an ebook collection of Jane Austen’s novels, I’d recommend The Complete Illustrated Novels of Jane Austen by MobileReference.

Cover Art Favorites:

Quotes:

“—provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“—if adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“Neither robbers nor tempests befriended them, nor one lucky overturn to introduce them to the hero.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“—no young lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman’s love is declared, it must be very improper that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is first known to have dreamt of her.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“despair of nothing we would attain as unwearied diligence our point would gain.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“If the heroine of one novel be not patronized by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard?” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“My dearest creature, what can have made you so late? I have been waiting for you at least this age!” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“—that would have thrown me into agonies!” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“—when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you—Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.

Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?

Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews, a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the world, has read every one of them.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“Where the heart is really attached, I know very well how little one can be pleased with the attention of anybody else.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“Mr. Morland, you are not to listen. We are not talking about you.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“I am sure of this—that if everybody was to drink their bottle a day, there would not be half the disorders in the world there are now. It would be a famous good thing for us all.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“—she had not been brought up to understand the propensities of a rattle, nor to know to how many idle assertions and impudent falsehoods the excess of vanity will lead.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“All have been, or at least all have believed themselves to be, in danger from the pursuit of someone whom they wished to avoid; and all have been anxious for the attentions of someone whom they wished to please.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“—man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“‘Only go and call on Mrs. Allen!’ he repeated. ‘What a picture of intellectual poverty!’” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“How I hate the sight of an umbrella!” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“If I could not be persuaded into doing what I thought wrong, I never will be tricked into it.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“That little boys and girls should be tormented—is what no one at all acquainted with human nature in a civilized state can deny; but in behalf of our most distinguished historians, I must observe that they might well be offended at being supposed to have no higher aim, and that by their method and style, they are perfectly well qualified to torment readers of the most advanced reason and mature time of life.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“—it is very well worth-while to be tormented for two or three years of one’s life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“a good-looking girl, with an affectionate heart and a very ignorant mind, cannot fail of attracting a clever young man, unless circumstances are particularly untoward.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“—there is nothing people are so often deceived in as the state of their own affections.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“You men have none of you any hearts—If we have not hearts, we have eyes; and they give us torment enough.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“Isabella had said many things which she hoped had been spoken in haste, and would never be said again; and upon this she was glad to rest altogether for present ease and comfort.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“No man is offended by another man’s admiration of the woman her loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“—loss may be sometimes a gain.” -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

Movie Adaptations:

Northanger Abbey (TV Movie 2007)

Felicity Jones, J. J. Feild, Carey Mulligan

Movie Rating: PG

Northanger Abbey (TV Movie 1986)

Katharine Schlesinger, Peter Firth, Robert Hardy

Movie Rating: NR