COMMENTARY: Northanger Abbey (1818)
The following are thoughts and reactions I had while reading Northanger Abbey (1818) by Jane Austen. They do not reflect my overall post-reading opinion of the work. For self-study purposes, there may also be extensive summaries of the plot in these notes. In short…
⚠️ MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD ⚠️
Vol.1 - 15ch/112pgs. / Vol.2 - 16ch/123pgs.
- V1C1 - ok…. Diving back into Austen and some of the language… like untangling “not less unpropitious for heroism seemed her mind”. What in the actual fuck. So unpropitious is “a low chance of”, ok. So “not less” means this girl doesn’t have a lower chance of success at heroism than others… but seem means she has potential but doesn’t use it. So is she basically the “she’s smart but doesn’t try” excuse that parents all over blindly believe of their unremarkable children? The if they’d only work harder they would succeed bullshit they tell themselves? Because so far, Cathrine Morland is basically a plain Jane tomboy who doesn’t try hard on anything, gives it up, with a mom that lets her. “What a strange unaccountable character!” Indeed. And then Austen throws out… despite the SYMPTOMS of profligacy… she’s not reckless or wasteful either. She doesn’t argue , is kind, and liked playing the dirt. So uncontrollable plain Jane tomboy, but not evil.
- V1C1 - and then she cleans up at 15 but she’s still unskilled in everything. However she starts aspiring to “heroism” whatever that means contextually in this time period… and she gets a chance to travel to Bath with Mr and Mrs Allen. I have no idea where Austen is going with this.
- V2C2 - this is the cattiest thing I’ve ever read in my life: ” Mrs. Allen was one of that numerous class of females, whose society can raise no other emotion and surprise at there being any men in the world who could like them well enough to marry them. She had neither beauty, genius, accomplishment, nor manner.”
- V1C2 - thought. But isn’t social media basically a ball but on an asynchronous global scale? Sure you don’t dm. But you’re there — with your curated image, fashion, and
- V1C3 - ooooh I sure hope Tilney is a conman. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m a horrible person.
- V1C4 — what is a “quiz”???
- From Merriam Webster: Although we are unable to account for the origin of quiz, we can answer to its usage. The noun quiz is first used with the meaning “an eccentric person or thing,” a slangy sense that, while not obsolete, is rarely used today but is preserved in literary works.
- He was not odd—no quiz—yet he resembled no one else I had ever seen before. — Charlotte Brontë, The Professor, 1857
- Where did you get that quiz of a hat? It makes you look like an old witch. — Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, 1817
- Pg. 37… wtf. Is Austen breaking the fourth wall here?
- V1C5 - yeah. Ok. That was weird. Need to defend the whole medium.
- Pg. 40 - uh spoilers, Catherine. What if I, your dear Reader, would perchance like to read Udolpho?
- They’re basically sharing murder podcasts aren’t they.
- So regardless of the fact that this novel is over 200 years old, i am still basically reading the conversation of two teenage girls here, aren’t i?
- V1C7 - ok. So boys bragged about horsepower in front of girls back then too. Great.
- Pg. 48 - I only read the classics!!! Like Tom Jones!!!
- Ok, so we got mansplaining, elitist critique of culture, and then calling his sisters ugly. This guy’s a real catch.
- V1C8 - waaaah, nobody is asking me to dance!
- V1C8 - TFW you can’t hang out with your crush when they’re in the same room as you.
- V1C9 - John Thorpe is the most delightful creature to ever grace the planet, isn’t he? Also, I guess you can’t ghost people. They just show up at your door.
- V1C9 - Thorpe’s going to turn out to be a ok guy and Tilney is an actual freak. Yeah? Or too easy a twist?
- V1C10 - JFC, Isabella is a lot
- V1C10 - girl, stop being so damn thirsty. Miss Tilney’s gonna rat you out to her brother.
- Pg. 76 - is this unhinged? I can’t tell.
- V1C11 - kidnapped, lied to, and didn’t even get to see a castle.
- V1C12 - ah, so you can ghost someone. You just don’t answer the door like Eleanor does and give your butler an excuse to give to the person at the door.
- V1C12 - she’s so embarrassing. I wonder if the comic strip is named after her.
- V1C13 - JFC, that Thorpe character. Hell, both of them really. They’re both so extremely annoying.
- V1C14 - JFC. They’re going to bond over books and pop culture. This is insane. This book is 200 years old and how we date hasn’t changed at all. Do you like book X? Omg. You do? Me too!!!!!’
- V1C14 - Henry Tilley is one of those annoying people who get upset over the misuse of words. Huh. Doesn’t sound like anyone I know.
- V1C15 - “though exceedingly fond of her brother, and partial to all his endowments”…. Hehehehe.
- V1C15 - not sure Catherine is picking up what Thorpe is putting down. Gonna be a comedy of errors in a minute
- V2C1 - so is Tilney an asshole or someone who likes correcting people?
- V2C1 - JFC, I had to look up notes for that. This line tripped me up so much: With you, it is not, how is such a one likely to be influenced? What is the inducement most likely to act upon such a person‘s feelings, age, situation, and probable habits of life considered? – But, how could I be influenced, what would be my inducement and acting so-so?
- V2C2 - awwww. They set up a rich person weeks long play date!
- V2C2 - it’s been 142 pages. Where is the goth stuff I was promised and foreshadowed? Northanger better be haunted af.
- V2C3 - and there we have it. Thorpe declares his love. Oops. But also. Isabella is going to create more chaos isn’t she… knowing that family. This is how drama starts.
- V2C3 - yeah. Ok. I get Isabella now. I was slow.
- V2C5 - ”so great was her agitation in finding herself as one of the family, and so fearful, was she of not doing exactly what was right, and of not being able to preserve their good opinion, that, in the embarrassment of the first five minutes, she could almost have wished to return with him to Pulteney-street” some would say she has an anxiety problem, in addition to a lack of social awareness…
- V2C5 - The difference between Thorpe and Tilney is that Thorpe mansplains stuff nobody cares to listen to… while Tilney is a troll. He says shit just to get a reaction. He’s def the middle one who likes to scare or annoy her siblings.
- V2C5 - ok. The real troll here is Austen. wtf. Where is my haunted abbey?
- V2C6 - mystery box!!!!
- V2C6 - trolled. Yet again.
- V2C6 - stormy weather… nope
- V2C6 - black cabinet???
- V2C6 - she got a text notification and then her phone died.
- V2C7 - man. I’d fire this maid if she didn’t pick up a bunch of scattered papers on the floor.
- V2C7 - ahhahahahahhahaha. Austen continues to troll me. Is this parody or satire???? Catherine basically got into the Tilney’s Quickbooks account!!! Ahhahaha.
- V2C7 - getting Briony Tallis vibes from Catherine right now. Just making stuff and drama up in her head. But also… Austen with the end-of-chapter teases. Wonder if she pioneered them.
- V2C8 - so we gonna get a dead mom ghost and some awful murder or is Austen trolling me again? Is this the point of this book? She just keeps setting up horrible things and keeps disappointing you on purpose? Is she cackling with delight at all the foolish readers from wherever she is now?
- V2C9 - sneaking around and got caught and got shamed
- V2C10 - interesting 80% betrayal and “death” slash all is lost moment.
- V2C11 - was that a filler chapter? Captain is ghosting them. General is worried about not entertaining Catherine. So they go all the way to Woodston for a dinner?
- V2C12 - deny avoid reverse victim offender. Well, not the RVO part… but she’s definitely playing dumb well. Or who knows maybe Catherine’s brother did misread everything and left in a huff.
- V2C13 - so that was strange. To be abruptly kicked out like that. But also, also, synchronously… the reverse of this, someone storming out just happened to me last night and the lack of explanation was so sudden and so surprising, so high tension.
- V2C14 - “sad little shattered-brained creature”… oh thanks mom.
- V2C14 - two thoughts: one, I don’t know if breaking up with a friend is harder than breaking up with a lover. I feel like the latter is actually more devastating. Two, there are more twelve pages left. What’s going on here? Is Austen trolling me for one last time? Is this whole book a nothing burger? Catherine meets the Tilneys, hangs out for a bit, and then nothing?
- V2C15 - naw, we’re still going to get a marriage proposal. But no crazy unhinged rant like the other two novels I read P&P and S&S.
- V2C16 - “sad heedless young housekeeper”… wtf mom?!?!?
- FINAL THOUGHTS: No, not really. You got me, Austen. You got me good.