So-this post is the first in what I hope to be a string of book reviews. The subject is Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen.
It follows the tale of an "unlikely heroine" named Catherine Morland. She is invited from her country home to accompany her neighbors into Bath, the fashionable, posh city bustling with trivial activities such as excessive socializing, attending balls, theatres, and shops, and visiting the "Upper and Lower Rooms", huge, decorated halls with the purpose of giant meeting places for friends and gossipers. A good part of the book takes place here, telling of the wonder and experiences Catherine's first time in the city evoke. She meets a young clergyman named Henry Tilney, the son of a wealthy, widowed General. Henry and his sister, a delightful, kind young lady named Eleanor, invite Catherine to their home, Northanger, an ancient Abbey that has been re-modeled and preserved, complete with wandering, extensive gardens, orchards, and old vaults and rooms.
Here, Catherine is amazed by the Abbey, always having had a very conclusive, rapid imagination, and explores it at night. Then there is a major misunderstanding, involving a turned-down suitor, a prior, deceiving friend, and the General himself. The resolution is the classic Jane Austen ending.
In the beginning, Catherine struck me as being ignorant and irritating, but once she began to express her views more, I respected and agreed with her character. The book includes wonderful characters, such as Catherine's mother and father, and her godparents, Mr. and Mrs. Allen (Mrs. Allen is constantly providing comic relief with her self-absorption, and her obsession with fashion). As in Austen's other novels, each and every character is memorable and unique. The gossiping which takes place in the Upper and Lower Rooms of Bath is really quite amusing, and somehow keeps you interested, as no gossip (at least in my case) has done before.
Northanger Abbey was published posthumously, in 1817.
Some people consider it to be her most "Gothic" of plots. This means the Gothic Romance novel period, which included "tales of the macabre, fantastic, and supernatural, usually set amid haunted castles, graveyards, ruins, and wild, picturesque landscapes" (The Oxford Companion to English Literature, Fifth Edition). Although the last few characteristics are met in the book, I did not find it to be terribly macabre or supernatural. It was surprisingly scary (for Jane Austen's writing) at some points, but generally kept sunny and nice. There are many references, however, to Mrs. Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho", and Walpole's "The Castle of Otranto", Gothic novels that were apparently popular during the late 1700's and early 1800's. I haven't read these, but now am very curious due to Catherine's imaginings.
Jane Austen's family had a town house in Bath, which must have contributed to the relatively vivid descriptions of its society and buildings.
There is also a fairly recent movie version of the book. I thought it was okay. The acting could have been a little better, but the film stuck closely to the book in scene progression and characters' attitudes, beginning and ending with the original Jane Austen narrative (except they switched "something will and must happen to throw a hero in her way" to "...throw adventure in her way"; however, this is a very small complaint. On the whole, I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend reading the book beforehand, though (this is my advice for all books that are made into movies; I think it's very good to be able to create your own images before seeing someone else's.)
The film version (2008) was made for BBC television.
