A Novel Review: Nortanger Abbey

Northerner Abbey might be my favorite Jane Austen novel.  One of the main reasons is because Catherine is my new favorite heroine.  She’s a tom boy and she treats her life like it’s a fictional novel.  Catherine is the kind of person that would yell “plot twist!” at an unfortunate event in her life.

Catherine Morland is the main protagonist in this novel; she seems to live a predominantly normal life but she’s always had her imagination wrapped up in the things she read. When she’s asked by a friend of the family to go to Bath outside of her average country life it’s a world away. 

What I love about Catherine, is that rather than succumb to the little country girl she is and give in, she uses her understanding and love of books to read the people that surround her like she reads the characters in her books. She uses the magic that books give us to make the transition from her simple, rural life to the sophisticated ways of Bath in the late 18th century.

Also, could someone explain to me how Jane Austen can just tell her stories and backgrounds in an info-dumping way but keep my attention completely because she makes it fun and visual and easy to imagine?  Jane Austen has this biting honesty that is delightful to read even though her books are old.  Don’t dismiss Jane Austen.  She writes the truth.  

And I love, love, love the two ladies who are constantly talking at each other but never have an actual conversation because one talks about her kids and one talks about clothes.  Jane Austen doesn’t really show many of these conversations but I can totally imagine them.  As much as Catherine is living in a fictional novel, her friend Isabella is overdramatic because she’s got the lead role in this play called life.  Isabella is clingy and scheming.  I think Jane Austen didn’t mind scheming but I think she hated it when it was obvious.  Jane Austen is the queen of sarcasm, irony and relatable characters.

Likes most books of this era the language is different, the sentences are longer, and often with interstitial punctuation, but once you settle into the cadence of the speech things go smoothly. A dictionary is useful for words that are no longer in common use, although you can usually get the meaning from the context.

All in all, the book is an enjoyable read, and one which ends to the satisfaction of both the characters and the reader.