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A review by erica_cronje
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Northanger Abbey is my third Austen novel. . .and i expected a little bit more from the novel. It was certainly entertaining enough, an easy read, but it lacked a certain something. I understand it's her first novel so she might not yet have been as settled in her writing style and themes of commentary as seen in later novels, but it does make it more difficult to like in my opinion.
The pacing feels very off centre, the first half drags by with very little actually happening, we are simply meeting characters and setting up plotlines, which is fine, but then the second half of the novel feels incredibly rushed. The two sides of the novel does not feel as though they go together and the novel felt very inconsistent.
The way this book is marketed is a type of satire on the gothic and gothic literature, and while that is true to some extent, but it's marketed as the main theme, when it only truly lasts a few chapters in the second half and then Henry puts Catherine in her place and then poof all of her darker thoughts are just gone and that really bothered me. She has spent about a year being influenced by gothic literature and one paragraph from henry and it is all just wiped from her mind? it felt really sudden and i honestly lost interest after that, sinec now, the thing i had picked the book up for - it's commentary on the gothic - was over within a few pages.
As far as characters go, I like them well enough. Catherine is extremely naive and we are shown that really well with her inner thoughts and the conclusions she so easily jumps to, which does make her a type of unreliable narrator and brings a type of laughaniloty to the novel, since her thought process is just. . .so silly sometimes. I really appreciated Isabella as a complicated character, a woman striving for more than what her society allows her to, and while i do dislike her in the context of the main character, i appreciate that she is complex and wants more for herself and is therefore shunned for it by her society. The Tilneys and men - could not care less for. I have no strong feelings about them whatsoever, don't hate them, don't love them just can't find it in myself to care.
Ater reading three of her novels, i think it's time to acknowledge that Austen is not for me, her stories are too light for me, as well as her commentary and themes. I prefer novels with darker themes and darker characters, real gothic novels, so i do admit that my review on the novel is much more biased than i originally thought since , as it turns out, Austen's writing is just not for me.
The pacing feels very off centre, the first half drags by with very little actually happening, we are simply meeting characters and setting up plotlines, which is fine, but then the second half of the novel feels incredibly rushed. The two sides of the novel does not feel as though they go together and the novel felt very inconsistent.
As far as characters go, I like them well enough. Catherine is extremely naive and we are shown that really well with her inner thoughts and the conclusions she so easily jumps to, which does make her a type of unreliable narrator and brings a type of laughaniloty to the novel, since her thought process is just. . .so silly sometimes. I really appreciated Isabella as a complicated character, a woman striving for more than what her society allows her to, and while i do dislike her in the context of the main character, i appreciate that she is complex and wants more for herself and is therefore shunned for it by her society. The Tilneys and men - could not care less for. I have no strong feelings about them whatsoever, don't hate them, don't love them just can't find it in myself to care.
Ater reading three of her novels, i think it's time to acknowledge that Austen is not for me, her stories are too light for me, as well as her commentary and themes. I prefer novels with darker themes and darker characters, real gothic novels, so i do admit that my review on the novel is much more biased than i originally thought since , as it turns out, Austen's writing is just not for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Classism