Northanger Abbey

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

Having just experienced the delightful story of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen for the second time, I decided to pen down my thoughts on the satirical novel. It's by far my favorite Jane Austen novel out of the four I have read, simply because of the characters that make the novel so lively.

The novel's commencement itself begins with a very witty introduction to our protagonist Catherine Morland, who is a girl shy of seventeen, born into a family of ten, and has a rather plain disposition. The only thing that she shows great interest in is her voracious reading habit, her main reading material being gothic romance novels that lend to an overactive imagination. Catherine's 'heroic' journey begins when she is extended an invitation to Bath by her generous neighbors, the Allens, and we watch Jane Austen masterfully craft a plot that displays Catherine's progression into adulthood as she navigates different relationships within the strict constraints of Georgian society.

In Bath we are met with an array of characters, two notable families whose presence is most important to Catherine are the Tilney's, and the Thorpe's. Henry and Eleanor Tilney are two charming siblings, who forge an earnest friendship with Catherine, and the Thorpe siblings strike a precise contrast, as their relationship with Catherine is built upon deceit and mistrust.

The latter half of the novel is spent in Northanger Abbey, the Tilney estate, where Catherine is invited to. The part that takes place in Northanger Abbey is comedically written, as Catherine's imagination fostered in her by the great deal of gothic novels she reads, leads her to wrongfully believe that General Tilney, the proprietor of the house and father to the Tilney siblings, commits a crime most dreadful: the murder of his wife.

What always comes along with a Jane Austen novel is a romance, and the one in this novel takes place between the protagonist Catherine and Henry Tilney, who is first introduced to her in a ball in Bath. Their scintillating interactions and charming dialogue definitely make for a very good pairing, and I must confess, they are in my opinion, the best pair that Jane Austen has created in all her writings.

What I think sets apart Northanger Abbey is the purposefully amusing manner the book is written in. Told through a third person perspective, the commentary on all the happenings in the novel were carefully constructed by Austen to mock the gothic genre, which was presumably very prevalent during Austen's time. Moreover, each and every character was purposeful and essential in Catherine's development and growth, from her duplicitous friend Isabella Thorpe, to the charming Henry Tilney.

By the time the last page of the novel is turned, you would have witnessed Catherine's growth, from a naive seventeen year old girl who is all-too subsumed in the world of gothic romance, to an engaged woman who has grappled with all the trials and tribulations that come along with friendship, and love.