Brenda's Response to Northanger Abbey

1.     Northanger Abbey was first book Austen sold, but one of the last to be published. After reading four of her other novels, could you tell this was an earlier piece of work from Austen. Why or why not?

I felt as if I could tell that this novel was one of Jane Austen’s earlier pieces even before I new that is was.  It was an enjoyable read for me, but I just didn’t feel like the characters were as well thought out or as well developed as in the other novels we have read.  To me this almost seemed like a rough draft or a really extensive outline.  I think our main character, Catherine, was fairly well developed, but things like the love story didn’t seem quite complete to me.  It seemed forced and rushed and just not complete.  I enjoyed this novel, but I could definitely tell it was an early less mature work of Jane Austens.

2. Imagination played a large role in Catherine's character, did you find this enjoyable to read or frustrating?

Well, I have to be honest, in the very beginning I found Catherine’s imagination very hard to understand.  For example it took me a while to understand that she was flashing in and out of a novel she loved.  Thank goodness for spark notes at times like this.   But once I got the rhythm of the writing and the story line established, I really enjoyed the different style of writing that this novel was presenting to us.   I loved that this main character had such an active imagination.  I loved that she liked to read and that she found the stories to be so realistic in her head.  I found Catherine a very interesting character, and a very different character in comparison to the other Jane Austen characters we have read.    

3. Do you believe Northanger Abbey is a love story or coming of age story? Explain.

I would definitely say a coming of age story.  I felt as if we the readers took a journey in the maturing of Catherine.  Her early ideals and thoughts seemed very immature but as the story progressed the silly girlhood notions were shaken from her a bit and reality set in and by the end she was a much more mature young lady and not so much a little girl with her head in the clouds.   As for the "Love Story".....once again Jane Austen has disappointed me.  It still confuses me how she can write in such rich detail everything about these characters, but when it comes to the climax of the love story she just blurts it out and moves on.   This one especially lacked any kind of touching moment, any kind of feeling of real love, any kind of romance.   In fact I almost missed the fact that they do get together in the end, it was that vague and non impressive.  I think in the second to the last chapter there was only one line that referred to a proposal.  ONE LINE!!!!!!!  I really didn't feel anything in the way of a real love story in this book.  I felt as if she just threw that in there at the end because she thought she had to or something.  The "Love Story" seemed very under-developed to me. 


4.  How does Catherine Morland compare to Austen's other heroines that we have read? 

Catherine seems younger, more immature, less developed.  All the other female heroines we have read so far seemed to know themselves more then Catherine does.  They seemed to have bigger experiences then Catherine did. They seemed more self-confident.  More mature.  Catherine was different, yet interesting, but overall I felt as if she was much less developed as a character then say Elizabeth or Jane Bennett.

5. Were you able to personally relate to any of these characters? If so who and how? 

Oh goodness…….Ummm……I always seem to be able to relate to at least one of the characters in the stories we have read so far, but this time it was a little more difficult. I guess on some levels I can relate to Catherine.  I have a vivid imagination and I think she does too.  But other then that I don’t really think I personally related to the characters of this book as much as I have with others.    

6. Would you recommend this novel to a friend?

Oh Yes, I definitely would.  It was a wonderful read, it kept my interest it had twists and turns, and I would recommend this to anyone.  Jane Austen is a brilliant writer.   

Brenda's closing thoughts........

Ahhhhh.....another Jane Austen novel under our belt.  It's hard to believe we are now starting our last Jane Austen Novel...Persuasion.  I'm starting to feel sad that our year with Jane Austen is almost at an end. It's such a pleasure reading such a gifted writers work.

Thank You again Rachel for your up keep of our blog.  I'm looking very forward to reading what you and everyone else have to say about Northanger Abbey.   I'm sorry if my answers seem short this time, I guess I didn't have much to say.....short book, short answers I guess ha ha ha.

Onto Persuasion.............I LOVE BOOK CLUB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Happy Reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!