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    Northanger Abbey
    Northanger Abbey
    Northanger Abbey
    Ebook356 pages6 hours

    Northanger Abbey

    By Jane Austen

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    To coincide with the launch of The Austen Project an ebook collection of Jane Austen’s timeless novels.

    ‘Northanger Abbey! These were thrilling words, and wound up Catherine's feelings to the highest point of ecstasy.’

    Considered the most light-hearted and satirical of Austen’s novels, Northanger Abbey tells the story of an unlikely young heroine Catherine Morland. While staying in Bath, Catherine meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor who invite her to their family estate, Northanger Abbey. A fan of Gothic Romance novels, naive Catherine is soon letting her imagination run wild in the atmospheric abbey.

    A coming-of-age novel, Austen expertly parodies the Gothic romance novels of her time and reveals much about her unsentimental view of love and marriage in the eighteenth century.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateMar 27, 2014
    ISBN9780007517961
    Author

    Jane Austen

    Jane Austen nació en 1775 en Steventon (Hampshire), séptima de los ocho hijos del rector de la parroquia. Educada principalmente por su padre, empezó a escribir de muy joven, para recreo de la familia, y a los veintitrés años envió a los editores el manuscrito de La abadía de Northanger, que fue rechazado. Trece años después, en 1811, conseguiría publicar Juicio y sentimiento, a la que pronto seguirían Orgullo y prejuicio (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) y Emma (1816), que obtuvieron un gran éxito. Después de su muerte, acaecida prematuramente en 1817, y que le impidió concluir su novela SanditonLa abadía de Northanger, Persuasión (1818). Satírica, antirromántica, profunda y tan primorosa como mordaz, la obra de Jane Austen nace toda ella de una inquieta observación de la vida doméstica y de una estética necesidad de orden moral. «La Sabidu-ría –escribió una vez- es mejor que el Ingenio, y a la larga tendrá sin duda la risa de su parte.»

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    Reviews for Northanger Abbey

    4/5

    5,162 ratings189 reviews

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    • 5/5
      After being so-so about Pride and Prejudice, which everyone seems to love, I was suprised at how much I liked Northanger Abbey. It is genuinely funny.
    • 3/5
      A quite surprising novel in its frankness and how it treats the subject matter. Austen proves her worth by crafting characters whose journeys inward parallel the motion of the plot-line occurring around them. While the prose might seem a little dated by today's standards, there is still much to be admired here. This is, I believe, one of Austen's finer novels.

      3.35-- worth the read.
    • 4/5
      Not my favourite Austen novel, but still a lovely read and a very intriguing story. Northanger Abbey concerns itself with appearance, style, and fashion. This is established immediately with the author's advertisement, and with the repetition in the first few chapters that Catherine is the "heroine" and must appear "heroic." Of course, Austen breaks down the rules of appearances, demonstrating throughout the length of the novel that nothing is as it appears. Even the lovely abbey that Catherine longs for, she soon remarks that it is the place where she has been most miserable, and received the most terrible news, as opposed to its exterior joys. All in all, it's a snarky Austen, and a witty Austen, but it lacks the mastery of some of Austen's other works.
    • 4/5
      Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey was the first she completed for publication, in 1803, though it was not published until after her death in 1817. The work satirizes gothic novels though the heroine, Catherine Morland, who “is in training for a heroine.” She is fond of gothic novels, particularly the work of Ann Radcliffe’s work, and this allows Austen to comment on the novel as a literary form, defending it against critics who derided it for its supposed lack of serious content. Discussing her reading habits, Catherine describes the follies then current in historical writing, saying, “The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all – it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention. The speeches that are put into the heroes’ mouths, their thoughts and designs – the chief of all this must be invention, and invention is what delights me in other books” (pg. 102). As modern academic history was relatively recent, first appearing with Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1776, Austen comments on the earlier fashion of historical writing and how authors would simply repackage classical texts with some of their own inventions to spice up the narrative. The power of reading runs through Austen’s work, driving many of Catherine’s choices and informing her conversations. This Barnes & Noble edition includes an introduction and notes from Alfred Mac Adam that the Austen scholar may find interesting, though his habit of putting definitions for all the early-nineteenth century terms in the footnotes becomes distracting, especially as the meaning of most can be gleaned from context.
    • 1/5
      I see what she was trying to do here, but it comes off more frustrated and catty than satirical. It does make me glad that I live in the 21st century, though, and not the 18th.
    • 3/5
      This may make me a disgrace to Jane Austen fandom, but Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice have always been fairly interchangeable in my mind. They’re just so similar! So, even though I love them both dearly, I was initially very excited to start this book and find something a bit different. As always, I adored Austen’s writing style and her pointed humor. In this book, she very deliberately breaks the tropes of the Gothic novel, with funny asides about the genre along the way. Her points are made clearly enough that I could tell what she was making fun of in Gothic novels, even though I’ve read very few myself. However, as I got further into the book, it soon became clear that there was essentially no plot and the main character isn’t very bright. Although she does grow a bit, she has very little agency. Nearly all of the difficulties she faces are in her head or at least blown all out of proportion. I didn’t really feel that this silly main protagonist deserved the intelligent, funny, kind love interest. In typical Austen fashion though, everything just works itself out in the last few pages. This doesn’t typically bother me, but in this case, there wasn’t enough action by the main character preceding the speedy resolution. Only Austen’s wonderful writing saved this for me.

      This review first published on Doing Dewey.
    • 5/5
      I read this book way back in 1982 and I thinks it's due for a re-read.
    • 4/5
      I'm not usually a great love of classical lit, but I loved this book! I wiil definitly read it again. I'm going to move on to Pursuasion, since I'm a lover of Jane Austen now!!
    • 4/5
      I'd forgotten just how funny Northanger Abbey really is. Listening to it on audiobook this time around gave me plenty of opportunities to laugh out loud and the reading by Juliet Stevenson was truly superb. It is a shame that Austen didn't get to revise Northanger Abbey before her death as she had intended to. It is without doubt a weaker novel than her masterpieces: the ending is rushed and the two distinct threads of the novel don't meld together that convincingly. However, it is splendidly funny, the satire is sharp and the authorial voice witty. Austen's comments on the behaviour of immature young women, the demands of friendship and the influence of trashy novels feel fresh and relevant today. I enjoyed every moment of this wonderful book!
    • 4/5
      This was fun, especially the beginning and the very end of Northanger Abbey where Austen indulges in meta-comments, authorial intrusions, direct appeals to the reader, and the most obvious jokes. Most of the rest of this short novel plays out like a regular Jane Austen book, with the occasional reminder that this is -- in part -- a parody. Jane Austen parodying her own style and genre. Fun!
    • 3/5
      I am so glad I read this - so that I never have to read it again. She's a very good author, I agree - but you have to have some knowledge of a subject to enjoy a satire on it, and I avoid Gothic novels because I find them boring and histrionic. So I missed 90% of her clever satirical bits (all but the ones she pointed out with loud handwavings and lampshadings) and got to read a boring, histrionic Gothic novel. The characters are rather sketchy - aside from Our Heroine and a little bit Our Hero, none of them move much past stereotype. The events are (deliberately) dull, ordinary, and conventional...hmm, we never did get that abduction in a coach and four she mentioned as a future event. I was expecting it to show up during her ride home, and to be conventionally explained. It's almost a sweet little romance, but the obstacles are so silly... I also found the narrator/author extremely intrusive, particularly at the beginning while she was explaining how Catherine was a heroine despite lacking all the standard markers. Hopefully this is part of the satire, and not her standard form. I will read more Austen (this was, I believe, my first), and will do my best to forget about this one.
    • 5/5
      Northanger Abbey is probably Jane Austen's lesser known novel and yet it is one of her funniest. It was the first novel she completed and is a satire on the gothic literature that was very popular at the time. Catherine Moreland is the heroine of the story. She is a small-town, naive girl who is taken to Bath by her friends and neighbors for a little adventure. While there, she meets Henry Tilney (the greatest and most hilarious hero Jane Austen ever created) along with some other unforgettable characters (Isabella and John Thorpe for example) who teach Catherine more about the harsh realities of life than she ever imagined. Catherine fantasizes and sometimes confuses fiction with reality, but is a very kind and trustworthy individual. It's a true delight to watch her grow up and fall in love.
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed the first two thirds of Northanger Abbey, which I found quite different in tone from the other Austen books I’ve read (Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility), in that Austen “intrudes” into the story much more, addressing the reader directly, and is much more tongue-in-cheeky. I found her sensibilities quite modern (which admittedly surprised me) and the writing witty. However, this part of the book also left me confused as to the title—Northanger Abbey isn’t mentioned until page 165 of the book I own. Unfortunately, once the characters actually get to Northanger Abbey, the rest of the plot devolved for me—perhaps I’m not familiar enough with the Gothic genre she was poking fun of, but the last third of the story seemed sillier and more forced, which disappointed me. Still, this was an enjoyable read and gave me a glimpse into a different Austen than I was familiar with.
    • 3/5
      I've loved Jane Austen's other novels, and this was a fairly entertaining diversion, especially if you've got any experience reading 18th Century Gothic novels. It probably isn't something I'll come back to as I will with her others, but I'm glad to have explored it over once--a relaxing break from the real world if nothing else, and an easy read.
    • 4/5
      My least favorite of Austen's works. I prefer "Sanditon," which she didn't even finish. The Gothick! sheen is just flimsy.
    • 3/5
      A look at the human ability to self-deceive by Miss Austen. Combining a look at country foibles, and the embryonic "cozy" who-dun-it", the book moves along nicely. Somehow this book reminds me of "Cold Comfort Farm", by Stella Gibbons.
    • 4/5
      This is one of my favorites of Jane Austen. The characters are great--you can envision each of them. The dialogue is well played and let's face it, it really is very funny!
    • 3/5
      Is anyone else wondering how many of the reviews of this book are reviews and how many are book reports?I'll try not to repeat the things that you can learn about this book just by reading the back cover, but there's a clear progression from this novel through Pride and Prejudice and all the way up to Persuasion. The satire in this book is broad and uncomplicated; the author is having fun with the genre and is not trying to hide that fact from us. Likewise, the characters neither have hidden depths nor grow throughout the book, but are pretty much as they are from beginning to end. Boo and hiss the unsubtle Isabella and the chauvinistic John Thorpe; cheer for the remarkably naive Catherine; enjoy the sophisticated Tilney children. Enjoy the book for what it is and don't worry about what it is not; but by no means make this your first Austen experience, because Northanger Abbey is not what Austen is about. Instead, read Pride and Prejudice first - it's the most fun. Then, if that caught your fancy, go on to Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Then, read Persuasion to see Austen at the sophisticated height of her powers. Then, and only then, go back and read this perky little satire, and you can smile to yourself at the silliness that a foolish young author will allow herself to get up to when she's learning how to write novels.
    • 3/5
      **Spoiler Warning**This is my first time reading a Jane Austen novel. I have repeatedly seen and enjoyed the movie versions of all her other 5 major novels. So, I am quite familiar with Austen's work in that way. This is not the type of literature I usually read, but if I was going to pick one, then I'd choose the one I haven't seen, which is Northanger Abbey. I love Austen's prose... the language of the period is beautiful. There were quite a few moments in the novel where I smiled at some of the more humorous turns of phrase.However, I have to say, on the whole I wasn't crazy about this novel. I know it's her first, but there are many people that love it anyway, so I won't dwell on that point. I did have to get used to actually reading her style. There were quite a few times where I had to re-read passages because the sentences were especially long and complex. That's definitely my problem! But, there were also times when I was lost because I couldn't track who was speaking. I would have been grateful for an extra dialogue tag here and there. I'm not that "slow", but I truly had to retrace 3-way conversations because there were actually no dialogue tags!Then there's the characters. Catherine Morland was cute, but not terribly bright at times. As a Jane Austen heroine she seems to fall short a little. Yes, she's young and inexperienced and has an over-active imagination made worse by reading gothic horror books like "Udolpho", but isn't there more to recommend her character to us (other than Austen constantly referring to her as “our heroine”, therefore, we must like her)? She's loyal and trusting... to a fault. Eventually she sees the problems that can arise from these qualities and learns from her experiences. But to what end? How does any of that effect the outcome of the story?We’re supposed to like Henry Tilney, right? But what’s so great about him? He certainly doesn’t do much in the story. He goes away and comes back... a lot! And for no dramatically purposeful reason. There are also a few times when he talks down to Catherine! Seriously, what’s so great about this guy, because I think I missed it!Eleanor seems to have no personality whatsoever. What’s the deal with Captain Tilney? I never understood why he went after Isabella in the end. And speaking of the end… I found it it pretty rushed! Apparently, Catherine gets “turned out” because it seems General Tilney was under the false impression (through Thorpe) that Catherine came from a more affluent background than she did, and when he found out he was mislead, sent her home! He was so nice to her throughout the story because he thought she was rich?! OK, some people are jerks, but this is the climax of the story and it seems pretty weak! I actually thought we were meant to like General Tilney?! I was disappointed. I know that misjudging people is a theme of the book, but that point was already made several times with other characters by that point. Why, at almost the last minute, did General Tilney have to be “the villain”, so to speak?The resolution to this final “conflict” is that Henry shows up (again!) and says he stood up to his father, but General Tilney still won’t give his consent. How does this get resolved? Eleanor gets married out of the blue, to some heretofore unknown Viscount that the General swoons over (deus ex machina, anyone?), which lowers his will to oppose Henry’s marriage, so he finally relents in a fit of indifference! Yes, the General finds out that Catherine’s not quite so poor as he was led to believe (by Thorpe again… fool me once, General?), but surely his finally seeing the truth doesn’t fully redeem him for his final treatment of Catherine? And let’s not forget that all this happens in about the last two pages!!! I found myself craving more denouement. Furthermore, What do Henry and Catherine see in each other anyway?! Catherine is almost too mortified or inexperienced to form a truly firm, critical, or insightful opinion about anything in the whole story. She’s too silly and mousy. And Tilney just doesn’t do anything in the book, except occasionally lecture Catherine, sometimes with snide comments. There are no evil bad guys in this enlightened day and age, in our part of England, Catherine! Silly, girl! BTW, Henry, form an opinion about your brother… he’s a jerk… at least I think he is... he was in and out of the story pretty quickly… what were his motives?In the end, I fully admit… I have to see the movies several times to appreciate all the nuances, even when it’s right before my eyes and some director has pre-chewed it for me. Maybe I missed tons of unbelievably subtle nuances in this book… but I’m only reading it once!
    • 4/5
      Austen's first novel is about loving novels, and the dangers inherent of that.
    • 4/5
      ‘Northanger Abbey’ is very different to the other two Jane Austen books I’ve read. Not only is the subject of the book different – it is has a darker, more controversial and shocking side that ‘Emma’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’ do not have, whilst at the same time being about a younger girl with a much lighter, naïve perspective on things than the other books had- but the style of writing is also quite different. Austen uses a lighter, more ‘fun’ technique of writing, referring to herself as the author of the story throughout the book and often introducing characters as if she was introducing them to a friend. This style of writing – as if you were talking and telling the story to someone instead of just writing it on paper – is often quite a common style these days, but compared to other very formal works of the time, which her other two books are more in tune with, ‘Northanger Abbey’ is very different.As I mentioned earlier, the book does have a slightly darker, more controversial side to it. Influenced by gothic novels, Catherine conjures up all kinds of awful crimes that General Tilney may have committed, including tales of murder and imprisonment. There is the same themes of young ladies misbehaving that was evident in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ when Lydia runs away with Mr. Whickam – here it is Catherine’s so-called friend Isabella who is shocking everyone with her misjudgement of situations and inability to behave respectfully.Catherine is a younger and more imperfect character than Austen’s other creations. Elizabeth Bennet and Emma both had flaws, but were both seen to be very intelligent and beautiful. The first chapter covers of ‘Northanger Abbey’ covers Catherine’s childhood as an unsightly young girl, and although she does develop, it always seems that she never really becomes ‘beautiful’, and for this we feel more compassion for her. She is also quite a slow girl – not very able in picking up signs in other’s behaviour and simply lacking in general intelligence and wit.‘Pride and Prejudice’ still remains my favourite Jane Austen book, but ‘Northanger Abbey’ probably comes in second so far. It is a lovely book that is very easy to enjoy, especially for someone more my age. I still, however, have Jane Austen’s other three published works to read before I can really make a fair comparison.
    • 2/5
      I, being a huge Jane Austin fan, was very dissapointed in this book. It is my least favorite of her works. I thought the plot line was weak, and it just wasn't as good as her others.
    • 4/5
      Not really sure if Miss Jane is for me.I'm halfway through her six novels and, just now, when I figured it out, I said, out loud, "I'm only halfway through?"Not to say that I've disliked any of the three I've read so far, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and, now, Northanger Abbey. Let's just say that none of them have been page turners.I was aware that Northanger Abbey was a parody and was anticipating reading it. But I found Catherine's obliviousness and Isabella and John Thorpe's conniving quite frustrating. Mrs. Allen was irritating in her cluelessness. Thinking back on it, Eleanor and Henry Tilney were about the only likable characters therein.On the other hand, I did appreciate Catherine's clear sighted assessment of Isabella's final letter and my heart was warmed by Henry's gallant appearance at the Morlands' residence.Perhaps since Austen's conclusions are foregone (ie., the main characters will end up happily ever after) and, therefore, I am not reading her novels for plot, I tend to find them rather slow going, reading perhaps a chapter a night until I near the end when the pace picks up slightly.
    • 5/5
      Quite possibly one of my favorite books, Gothic romance and suspense, The first half went slow until I mastered to language, but it was the easiest Austen book to read and get into and I was able to read her other novels with more ease after this one.
    • 5/5
      Being the Austen fan that I am, I eventually would have read Northanger but due to the recommendation of a friend (also an Austen fan), I wound up reading it much sooner than I had anticipated. At first, I was hesitant: how good could Austen's first novel have been if it had been overlooked by many for almost 200 years? Nevertheless, I read it- and loved it. The simplicity of the main character (Catherine) and the trifles of her life when suddenly placed in Bath, England push the story along much faster than you could imagine. Although characters are blatantly divided into "good" and "evil" there is no denying the fact that sometimes people ally themselves with bad people. It also goes without saying that Austen did an eloquent job of providing the reader with that sense of being alone in a world where everyone seems to despise you. Northanger Abbey is a wonderful little novel that'll make you want to sit in bed on a cold night and "gobble it all up".
    • 3/5
      For biting satire, this is Jane Austen at her best. For storytelling, her other works are much stronger. There's not much I can say about Jane Austen that hasn't been said before and I have no intention of using this review for an in depth critical analysis of the text, so I'm just going to tell you what I liked about this satirical take on the gothic theme.More than any of Austen's books, this one conveyed to me a living, breathing sense of what life was like in Bath during the Season. Albeit through prose which is some of Austen's most sarcastic, nonetheless she really conveyed the crowded, bustle-filled social whirl that was Bath. The initial description of Catherine's arrival and first sortie out to the Upper Rooms, where they knew no-one, had a familiar ring to it. I loved her cutting sarcasm, she became more restrained in later novels (possibly as her writing and storycrafting also became more refined).Where this book was let down was in the story itself. Entertaining though Austen's dissection of Bath, the social structure of the day and the predominant fashion for gothic novels was, ascerbic and hilarious, it came at the expense of a truly absorbing story. There was no great romantic pairing, no Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. I didn't feel in any way invested in our heroine and her romantic interest tale. If I was being uncharitable, I might even go so far as to say that I felt this novel was at times nothing more than a scaffold to enable Austen to vent spleen on her least favourite aspects of the society of the day.On balance, I liked the book - it was an enjoyable read but it was far from my favourite Austen novel.
    • 4/5
      This book is a quick read that is quite enjoyable. If you loved "Pride and Prejudice", you'll find Northanger Abbey to be in the same mold. Jane Austen brings the characters alive in this short novel.
    • 5/5
      This is my new favorite Jane Austen book. It is poking fun in a gentle way at the Gothic horror/romances of her day. Austen has set the standard for wit, suspense and tension. Though there is little or no action, I could not put this down.Catherine is a young woman of seventeen who is just beginning to experience the world around her. Her naivety of the characters around her seems extreme, but she has been raised in a small village, in a loving home, with only her limited reading of novels to give her wisdom. When she is invited to stay at an ancient Abbey, her heart thrills. Will she be able to bear up under the mystery and suspense? Will the Abbey live up to all she has read? Or will she find real life's twists and turns a more thrilling adventure yet?
    • 3/5
      Jane Austen's satire on the gothic novels of her time is, at the same time, a defense of the novel, according to the Austen scholar who was in my bookclub meeting the other day. The novel showcases Austen's sense of humor, and at times gently, at times not-so-gently, highlights flaws in the society.
    • 3/5
      This was my first time reading a Jane Austen novel. I found it to be quite enjoyable and loved the humor that Ms Austen used. This is labeled to be a bit on the "gothic" side, however being use to today's type of gothic, this did not stand out at all to me. In Northanger Abbey, we have young Catherine Morland, who is off to spend a few weeks in Bath, with a dear family friend. While there, she sees many exciting things and meets many people. One such person, Eleanor Tilney, becomes a beloved friend and also happens to be the sister of Henry, who Catherine has fallen in love with.The time has soon come for the Tilney's to head home and Eleanor asks that Catherine come to stay with them. Not only does the prospect of getting to see the inside of a true Abbey excite her, but to be able to stay with her dear friend and be able to be near the man she has fallen in love with, are to good to be true.Once settled in Northanger Abbey, Catherine begins to question the death of Eleanor and Henry's mother. She envisions their father keeping their dear mother stashed away somewhere within the Abbey, or worse yet, having killed her at his own hand, rather than a sudden illness taking her life. Thus enters the role of the gothic play.By reading Northanger Abbey, I feel as though I was given the chance to travel back in a time much much different than today. I look forward to reading more of Jane Austin's work and may even search out the movie, based upon this book - just to see how it plays out on the screen, compared to how I envisioned it while reading.

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    Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

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