Friday 30 March 2018

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen


Northanger Abbey tells the story of a young girl, Catherine Morland who leaves her sheltered, rural home to enter the busy, sophisticated world of Bath in the late 1790s. Austen observes with insight and humour the interaction between Catherine and the various characters whom she meets there, and tracks her growing understanding of the world about her.

In this, her first full-length novel, Austen also fixes her sharp, ironic gaze on other kinds of contemporary novel, especially the Gothic school made famous by Ann Radcliffe. Catherine's reading becomes intertwined with her social and romantic adventures, adding to the uncertainties and embarrassments she must undergo before finding happiness.


What did I think?

I really really wanted to love Northanger Abbey but I really really didn't.  It simply couldn't hold my interest for more than a few pages and I found the characters so one-dimensional that I forgot them as soon as their sentence ended.

Catherine was an ok character; the benefit for me being that she was clearly the main protagonist so I knew to take notice of her.  I only felt that she endeared herself to me in the second half of the book, though.  I did enjoy Catherine looking around her room in Northanger Abbey and being a bit nosy but that's the only occasion I could describe it as humorous.

I think Northanger Abbey must be for die-hard Jane Austen fans as I really couldn't see the appeal.  Sorry Austen fans, this one wasn't for me.

My rating:




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