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    Northanger Abbey
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    Northanger Abbey
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    Northanger Abbey
    Ebook285 pages5 hours

    Northanger Abbey

    By Jane Austen

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    A young woman comes of age and realizes that life is not a Gothic novel.

    A timeless classic, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey is both a coming-of-age story and a parody of the Gothic novels of the nineteenth century. Catherine Morland is destined to be the heroine of her own life story as she navigates friendships and romantic relationships, and as she learns to let go of childish notions of fantasy regarding the lives of others. Held from publication for more than a decade, this story was an instant success when it was finally released in 1817. This Canterbury Classic Word Cloud makes a fine addition to any home library.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCanterbury Classics
    Release dateApr 1, 2017
    ISBN9781626869806
    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

    4,864 ratings187 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I read this book way back in 1982 and I thinks it's due for a re-read.
    • 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.
    • 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
      (bought pre-1989: sticky backed plastic cover and student pencil notes)I’m afraid that I have to admit that this is my favourite Jane Austen, and I’m very glad I was inspired by Ali’s revisit to come back to it myself. The tale of young Catherine Moreland, very much not a classic heroine, and her adventures in Bath and staying with friends in the Abbey of the title, getting all overcome by her Gothic reading matter and having all sorts of imaginings, is so mischievous and cheeky, and even the gear change between life in Bath and the gothic misconceptions doesn’t clunk as much as it amuses. Austen has female friendships and sibling relationships down so exactly, and pretty well every page has a jewel: a witty aside, a delicious turn of phrase, a subtle unpinning of the fabric of “polite society” … and Catherine is a lovely heroine, even when she’s being silly.I do know this one really well (as my detailed student notes testify!) so there were no surprises on rereading, except maybe the balance between Bath and Abbey is rather heavier on the Bath side. It’s interesting having read it alongside “Jane Eyre”, the real gothic novel of the two, of course, and seeing the parallels: most noticeably, two solo post chaise rides across country: but Catherine is careful not to leave anything in the pockets inside the coach!It was lovely to be able to wallow in this one again – a very worthwhile reread.
    • 4/5
      As a lover of both the gothic genre of literature and Jane Austen, it was inevitable that I would read and enjoy this book. Witty and extremely clever, this book skewers the familiar story of an imaginative young woman who finds herself in a mysterious home where the mistress is dead and her son is out of the heroine's league but still highly appealing. This book will have you laughing out loud.
    • 5/5
      Throughout this book complications, misunderstandings and many interesting events occurred frequently, which made me want to continue reading. There were unexpected events, which triggered my interest and kept me reading the book. This book has a really interesting plotline; some of the events that occur are much unexpected. I have to say that I really like the characters in the book; they are all different and have interesting and distinctive characters. Overall I really think this was a great read and I really enjoyed reading the book!If you like your classics or want to start reading a classic I would highly recommend this book! AW
    • 4/5
      "Northanger Abbey" is definitely not my favorite amongst Jane Austen's novels, but nor it is my least liked either. The book succeeds on the back of its heroine Catherine Moreland, who despite being rather daft and silly is still fairly likeable and interesting.Catherine, who is enthralled with the Gothic romance "Mysteries of Udolpho," travels to Bath and later to an abbey she believes is imbued with all things "Udolpho." Along the way, she meets a variety of characters, some disreputable, some not... and it is all tied up in a neat and tidy package, as you'd expect from an Austen story.A fun story... more so if you've read "Udolpho" so you know when Austen is poking fun at the novel. I found this to be an enjoyable and quick read.
    • 5/5
      Jane Austen. Enough said - the greatest of romance writers.
    • 2/5
      This is clearly an early work and lacks the social insight and delicious sarcasm that mark Austen's other books. The novel just isn't as rounded; it seems disconnected from itself and lacks the cohesiveness that I look for in Austen. The criticism of social and literary custom is still there, but it doesn't seem to have a united effect. So, this novel simply doesn't operate in the same way as her other writing.

      Also, Catherine is insipid and annoying and generally impossible to understand. She is very much like Marianne Dashwood, only without the comfort of Elinor. Not my favorite Austen work.
    • 3/5
      Although published posthumously, together with Persuasion, Northanger Abbey was actually the first novel that Jane Austen completed, and has always struck me as being the least mature of her major works. It is the story of young Catherine Morland, an impressionable seventeen-year-old girl with a taste for gothic romance novels, whose exciting trip to Bath with family friends introduces her to two very different sets of people - the Thorpes and the Tilneys. The gradual process whereby Catherine learns to distinguish between reality and appearance in the people around her, is mirrored by her growing understanding that the world of her imagination - embodied by books such as The Mysteries of Udolpho - will be of little help in navigating the pitfalls of real human interaction.Although not Jane Austen at her best, Northanger Abbey is still a light-hearted, enjoyable read, which has the distinction of boasting the author's famous 'defense of the novel' passage, reproduced below:It is only a novel... or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.It seems, at first glance, to be somewhat inconsistent that the author should trumpet the cause of a genre which leads her heroine into such difficulties. But in reality, Austen offers an clever defense of women's intellectual activities (novel-reading was considered a very "feminine" past-time), while astutely distancing herself from some of her more sensational predecessors...
    • 4/5
      While Catherine Morland is quite the least intelligent and most naive of all of Austen's protagonists, she starts out slightly annoying but becomes more likable as story unfolds. Filled with the usual romantic intrigues, what makes this different is the inclusion of the passion for horror novels by our hero, which her heart's desire shares with her, and how he uses it to pique her imagination just a touch too much - almost to her detriment. In general, a delightful story, and while not my favorite, it certainly is a lovely read.
    • 5/5
      Rollicking fun from first page to last. Austen’s novel about “our heroine,” 18 year-old Catherine, is a straight up satire of the popular novel of her day. Austen is deft. She at first beguiles the reader into thinking she’s reading a "normal" novel about a naive young girl taking her first steps out into society and making her first attempts at independent thinking. But gradually she reveals that the core purpose of the novel isn’t Catherine’s coming-of-age as much as it is Austen’s poking fun at her own livelihood – female novelist.She is at her most wicked when writing the chapter about Catherine and her romantic hero, Henry, as they trot along the road on their way to Northanger Abbey where Catherine has been invited on an extended visit. To tease her, Henry spins a gothic tale about his home that exactly fits the imagination of his companion’s novel-enthused mind. Once there, Catherine is at first disappointed in the modernized Abbey that does not meet the seedy standards of her expectations. Then Austen creates opportunities for Catherine to indulge her sensationalist fancies – what secrets lie hidden in a mysterious chest in her room; how thrilling the discovery of “ancient” papers in the back of a wardrobe; turgid speculation over the revelation that her host’s mother died rather young, compounded by the gruff behavior of the widower husband who might have helped her into the grave.We laugh and also rejoice as Catherine overcomes these flights of fancy and demonstrates that she's a well-grounded and intelligent young lady. At this point, Austen begins to address Catherine as “our heroine” and she does become that in her own story, overcoming trials and winning Henry. By the end of the book, Austen is no longer arch. She makes no effort to disguise her true target – novelists and their formulaic gothic entertainments (think the Brontes) – when she directly addresses the reader, telling her that “you can tell all will turn out right in the end because there are only a few pages left to read.”I laughed out loud many times listening to this recorded book. The narration was finely delivered and not over-acted but completely convincing in all voiced roles.Inimitable Austen.
    • 3/5
      This was my first Austen novel, and certainly I've achieved a rite of passage by reading it. It seems the modern woman absolutely must read Jane Austen, or so I've heard. But I do have friends who are true fans, so I gave this a go.

      It can't be Austen's strongest work, and it isn't. This was her first novel, and while it's entertaining, it's not terribly profound or even full of the accurate character observations for which Austen is so famous. Catherine Moreland flits around in the novel and gets manipulated by nearly everyone with whom she comes into contact. It even seems her love interest (can't remember his name) frequently makes fun of her earnestness. The wrap-up is too quick and pat. But I'll read more Austen. I have more rite of passages coming, undoubtedly.
    • 4/5
      I liked this one! It was different from much of her other works and I found it interesting.
    • 5/5
      Delightful! Eye-read and ear-read through Librivox. This has all of the arch, wry parody anyone could desire.
    • 2/5
      Felt a bit rushed. Also not quite as entertaining as I was told it would be. All in all rather disappointing.
    • 4/5
      Important as a comparison to her later works. you can see glimpses of Austen's future themes and pathways to better character development. I tended to get bored while reading it.
    • 5/5
      One of the absolute best Austen books, and that is saying something, Northanger Abbey is a spoof of the Gothic fiction of Austen's day. Katherine Morland is a rather empty-headed, naive young girl ready for an adventure. Ready for romance and horror, she is on the lookout for gloomy, haunted castles, secret lairs and wives locked in the attic...but mainly discovers that cabinets contain papers, not decapitated heads, and spare rooms are woefully free of haunts and murdered wives. Brilliant, fun, and even profound at moments, Northanger Abbey is Austen's most lighthearted romp.
    • 4/5
      What a bizarre and wonderful book. Hilarious, nasty, brilliant, kind. Never has authorial intrusion been so welcome.
    • 2/5
      Characters were childish. This is the first Jane Austen book I have read and was highly disappointed.
    • 4/5
      I thought this book was going to be a little bit different. So my expectations had me confused for a little while, but I came to my senses relatively quick. It’s Jane Austen, after all. All her novels are satire, so I have no idea why I decided that this one was going to be any different. Now that I’m writing this, I can actually parallel my confusion and certain attraction towards the supernatural to Catherine’s notions about abbeys and castles and old chests and so on. Look at me, I became the willing victim of Austen’s sharp wit, two centuries later. I love that lady.Would be silly to say that I didn’t like the book, because I really, really did. Several passages I found especially relatable (I hate that word, but it’s true). And as always I marvel at Austen’s ability to do so much with such a small world. Yet Northanger Abbey did not become my favourite Austen novel. Rather typically that place is still occupied by Pride and Prejudice.I read this book translated to Russian, because that’s how I began reading her novels years ago. Now that I have an e-reader, though, I could go a little bit in parallel with the original, looking up certain sentences and words (and marvelling at my complete lack of skill of translating fiction). Earlier I thought that Austen’s novels don’t lose much due to translation, but now that I had a chance to compare, I realise how wrong I was. It’s a little less painful than with Dickens, but painful enough for me to reconsider reading Persuasion in Russian, and to really just bleeding reconsider reading any other work originally penned in English in translation. Indeed, everything is lost in translation. Or, in the case of Austen, unnecessarily gained: the Russian parts that I managed to compare to English ones had much more unnecessary flourish in them than Austen would allow.(Review originally published on my blog, shortened and republished here.)
    • 5/5
      Hysterically funny, especially if you've read any of the gothic novels of her time. I particularly like the authoress injecting herself into the narrative, speaking of her own feelings about her characters. She clearly doesn't take herself too seriously...