Quick thoughts only. Northanger Abbey is probably the last book by Jane Austen that I'll read and that puts me at 5/6 of her novels, plus the unfinished Sanditon (the version finished by Kate Riordan), Lady Susan, and her juvenilia. The only book I couldn't get through is Mansfield Park. I hated the book and I hated the movie so much that I abandoned both so I doubt I'll ever get to that one, but who knows?
The writing in Northanger Abbey reads a little less mature than that of Pride & Prejudice and other works so, without looking up the publication date, I'm presuming it's an earlier work. I have no idea, though.
Catherine is invited to Bath by a neighbor. There, she meets and falls for a man named Henry Tilney while also becoming friends with a couple young ladies, one of whom is obviously attracted to Catherine's brother, James. When she's later invited to the Tilney home, Northanger Abbey, to stay with Henry's sister, Catherine is made nervous by a story Henry tells her (the Gothic elements of the novel) and she keeps getting caught opening doors and drawers that she shouldn't because her vivid imagination has her conjuring up all sorts of frightening possibilities. Northanger Abbey is really quite funny and a little nerve wracking. I enjoyed it immensely. Recommended.
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I have tried many times to read an Austen. I don't know what it is, they don't jive with me. I try every few years because you know, people change. I guess I am more of a Bronte gal.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and I'm not a big fan of Bronte. To each his own. There's nothing wrong with Austen not working for you. It just is what it is. It's great that you've continued trying, though! There are classics I haven't gotten through till the third or fourth attempt and then suddenly they just clicked for me.
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