Jane Austen discussion

I just finished reading this book and I didn't like it. If found it hard to get into. It didn't help that Isabella is in the first half of the book and that girl drove me nuts!

What are your thoughts? Would it have helped if I had read a gothic novel?

I have not read a gothic novel, and after giving it some time, I like Northanger Abbey.

The first time I read it, I didn't care much for it either. Now that I have read it again, I like it much more.

I love how Isabella Thorpe learned her lesson with Frederick Tilney. She should not have treated James as she had, and was left with nothing.

John Thorpe was beyond yucky and I was glad he didn't end up making a match at the end.

Henry Tilney is one of my favorite Austen men. He is patient, sweet and loyal. He didn't play games and was pleasant from the get go, so I just love him.

I agree, Henry Tilney is dreamy. He has a sense of humor and doesn't take Catherine's obsession with the gothic too seriously; yet doesnt seem to mock her meanly. I just finished the novel for the second time last week. I enjoyed it because its short and to the point. Also I got really into it. When John Thorpe is playing all those terrible games trying to keep Catherine away from the Tilney's...I just wanted to jump through the book and strangle him!! It was so frustrating!

Well, its been awhile since I have read this book. I think I am going to have to re-read the book soon though. My bookclub is going to be reading the Mysteries of Udolpho, the book Catherine is obsessed over around Halloween...isn't that appropriate. So I am thinking I might be more intune with this after I finish reading that. You know be in the total mindset of Catherine.

I have been reading this book too--I am not done yet so I am hoping that it gets better--but I can't stand the supporting characters. Isabella seems fake--I keep getting the impressions she only befriended Catherine in the beginning because Isabelle is in love with Catherine's brother. And Isabella's brother is the biggest pain I have ever seen.

But I do like Henry Tilney. He is really all that is keeping me going.

Isabella is awful, and so is her disgusting brother. They are so over the top.

I won't lie--I was hoping they would get better later in the book. But I am guessing from your comment that they don't. yuck. :)

If I had to choose which is more annoying, Thorpe (NA) or Mr. Collins (P&P), I would have to go with Thorpe. At least Mr. Collins is comical. Thorpe is just annoying.

I liked Northanger Abbey. And Isabella reminds me of someone I know--she didn't seem fake to me at all (that is, she was obviously "fake" in her sentiments in the book, but I thought she was a very well drawn character of what my friend Karin would call an "Evil Temptress"!)

;)
T

I actually finished reading this last night for the first time after several attempts of getting through it. It is my least favorite Austen, I found Catherine so immature and irritating. There was no Austen appeal in this novel, no hunt, no chase, no mystery. The supporting characters were all rather bland and the Thorpe's were pricks.

I know I'm in the minority. but NA is my favorite Austen. I like that Catherine sees peril and intrigue around every corner, to the point of making a fool of herself. I like that Isabella is so transparent and her brother is just creepy. If they were accomplished villians you wouldn't know their true natures until the end, so Austen makes them into petty miscreants to amuse her readers.
I like the idiotic Mrs. Allen for all her whining and I like Henry because he's sensible enough to see that Catherine would be fine if she had more to do with herself than read gothics all day.

I actually really enjoyed Northanger Abbey. Catherine is a very different heroine than Austen's more well-known ones, but I quite like her naivete. Perhaps as someone whose imagination is a bit too active I appreciate Catherine's fancies more than most. I also agree with the above posts that Henry Tilney is absolutely charming.

I enjoyed this book. It is not as refined as P&P but it serves a purpose. You are still swept away to another life. The characters are easy to know. It's been awhile since I read it but as I remember I felt like Henry was only persuing Catherine to get back at his father. I couldn't rejoice in her victory because of that feeling. Anyway, it's a well written & interesting book.

I agree with Amanda's first statement, that reading a Golic Novel, or maybe several, would help a reader to appreciate how deepy ironic (I just used the phrase "deeply ironic"...) Northanger Abbey is intended to be. I do think, correct me if you disagree, that Gothic novels have "types" of people or situations, that are moving towards destiny.
Isabella and her brother and well ,everyone are just these mouthpieces for Austen's ironic wit, characatures of themselves - the falseness of female friends, the hapless but sweet older brothers, the bungling and offensive British "bull-dog" suitors, doing what they're meant to do - be false, dumb, offensive. Even Catherine is not "real". She is completely honest in all her interactions, the foil for other's falsness. She is destined, being addicted to thrills, to be brought back down to earth with a slam.

Only Henry and his sister and perhaps their father are real people. They seem to be less of types (maybe controlling older father and honest son standing up to him to claim a sweet bride...) but MOST of the book that have actual thoughts and feelings, rather than destiny guiding them.

Right now I'm reading this for the first time ever. It's the alst of Austen's novels I have to read. I think perhaps this was less carefully written, more just-having-fun than her other works as the characters are rather more simple. So far I find it to be much more satirical in tone than her other novels- perhaps because in addition to the social satire she also has to tackle the entire gothic genre. (Quite a task!)

Even though I have not read any gothic novels of her day, I'm finding I can relate as I think much of the poorly written stuff today, as well as Jane Eyre (which is not poorly written, by any means) and Silas Marner, share the same excessive sentimentality and melodrama as the novels to which she was referring.

Despite this differece, I think it's one of my favorites by her, because I absolutely love Henry. He has all the wit and playfulness which I find lacking in her other heroes. I've gotta see a movie of it- if they do him half justice it will be amazing!! Any recomendations?

Blayre - I feel the same way about NA, but it was one of her earlier works. I liked that it was, in general, light and fun. Also, Tilney rivals Darcy and Wentworth as my favorite Austen man (I just can't choose).

As far as movies are concerned, I really enjoyed the new Masterpiece version (Felicity Jones & J.J. Feild), and recommend that you check it out. Of course, it feels too short, but it was still a good adaptation (unlike the Sally Hawkins version of Persuasion :P ).

This is the only book of Austen's that I didn't like. I found the storyline and characters to be dull and unappealing.

I finished NA a few days ago and I liked it just as well as I expected to. There were parts that dragged a bit, mostly when the story was so focused on Isabella, but it wasn't bad enough to put me off completely. I thought the story was a little rough but it was Miss Austen's first book so that was also expected. I don't think it replaced P&P as my favorite but I really liked Henry Tilney. I'm probably in the minority here, but I definitely liked NA better than S&S.

I would give it 4 of 5 stars. I have read a few Gothic novels of the type described in this book. That may have helped my enjoyment.

My copy contains the minor works so now I'm reading Lady Susan, which I am enjoying far more than I expected to.

*****

I just finished NA either today or yesterday, and I loved it! It's more humorous than the other books in some way. I loved Henry of course, but I was amused by Catherine. They fit so perfectly into teh Jane Austen world, so different from, say, Anne and Wentworth.

I too just finished NA and this time I enjoyed it more then the first time - I think I was expecting Austen at her very best the first time I read NA - and not Austen at her first. For a author of about twenty she does an amazing job of telling a wonderful story. I think Jane was very observant of people and human qualities and develops characters that are timeless!

Northanger Abbey is the only one of Jane Austen's books that I have started but not finished. It was a little while ago that I tried to read it, but I remember being very frustrated by the fact that John Thorpe tried so hard to alienate catherine from the Tilneys, who seemed very nice.
But, as I said before, it was a long time ago that I tried to read this book, and can't quite remember why I didn't like it .

I finished this book two days ago, it's not my favorite Jane Austen book but I liked it. Catherine is an unlikely heroine like the narrator says at the beginning, and I liked that about her...I loved Henry since his first appearance, he was sweet, smart and a true gentleman. I did not like Isabella very much, I suspected her from the beginning, she talked about friendship and how she treated those she love, but she did not show it a bit, John Thorpe was very annoying hated him with passion. This book is not as stylish as other works by Austen but I think is very good, I laughed hard with this one. I think Catherine's immaturity drove to trust in Isabella too much and also made her believe all the things she read in her novels, but she's a dear character...her brother I think was a fool in love and didn't realized either what was going to become of him, and because he was a fool in love he allowed the Thorpe's to manipulate Catherine

To Turner ~

I laughed all the way through NA. I thought it was a very funny book. I don't think it was meant to be like her other novels.

Of course - we all have out favorites... That must also mean we have those we don't like as well. Have you tried watching one of the movies? That may help "warm you up" to the novel. Then you could try reading it again - to get to all the wonderful things you miss because they can't possibly fit it into a movie.

I thought this one was hilarious. It is kind of the bridge between her childhood writing and her adult writing. The writing of her youth is predominantly humorous and written in an absurdist style... or at least with a healthy sense of the ridiculous. Even though it was published much later, NA is really the first novel she wrote that you can sink your teeth into, holding on to plot and character development, but she has not yet grown out of putting in those ridiculous elements - only here she is using them to poke a little fun at gothic novels. Fun times.

I liked this novel, it is not the usual Pride and Prejudice or the Sense and Sensibility genre. It was part gothic to me. But there were references to Bath. It read like almost a contemporary novel in some aspects.

I read this for the first time last year, for some reason I had assumed it was about a convent or something so I never sought it out in the book shop. I am so glad I read it, it was so much fun, a little girl with soooo much imagination, and then a second chance, what's not to like?

I like this novel as well. I liked that she used gothic symbolism in her book. At one point I was going to not finish, but I trudged through the book, and found it extremely well done.

I really love Northanger Abbey I know a lot of people don't really like it or call it the weak book but I thought it was very clever and well written. I htink in order to understand and appreciate this novel, you have to take into consideration when NA came out the literature that was popular at the time. And seriously, how can you not love Henry Tilney?

Henry Tilney....Sigh....How can you not love him? I think I read this book in one day a few years ago. I would love to pick it up again. A wonderful read.

I'm re-reading this one at the moment, and I'm really enjoying it! It's so amusing :D

I think Northanger is a little hard to get into in the beginning - but once it dawns on you what Austen is doing, it so amazing! Absolutely brillant.

I think Northanger Abbey is the book that is - or at least ought to be - the Austen work that is most "approachable" for young people. I don't think you have to read a gothic work - those works were basically what Twilight, Hunger Games, graphic novels. A contemporary Catherine Morland would probably be the small town girls who is the first on line for midnight showing of a Twilight movie or who talks her way into Comic Con.
Every character in the book has a contemporary counterpart - the parents who are a bit too prosaic and unromantic, the boy-crazy extrovert, the boastful clod and the sensible boy-next-door type - all very familiar types that you see in most movies and TV shows pitched at the 10-16 audience. The themes - dating (or the equivalent), your first grown-up trip away from home, fixation on pop culture, figuring out who are real friends and who are "fair weather" friends - are not all that different from what shows up in middle grade and YA books today.

J. wrote: "I think Northanger Abbey is the book that is - or at least ought to be - the Austen work that is most "approachable" for young people. I don't think you have to read a gothic work - those works wer..."

Very interesting points, J!

This book is a departure from the other Austen novels that we know and love. More gothic and suspenseful, almost reminds me in a way of Agatha Christie somewhat. This book was very compelling and I was almost going to return it to the library, but thought better of it and continued reading, and it was very well written. I think Young Adults would be able to handle this book, since it wouldn't have all the romance that some of them abhor, they are too young for that. This would be a great introductory book to the world of Austen.