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Summary: Pure Entertainment!
Review: It's a wonderfully delightful book. It's the funniest of all her novels! The most youthful and light-hearted book by Austen.
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Summary: A very interesting read .
Review: I thought that Northanger Abbey was a capturing read and yet, if you have not read any of her other novels you would find the language hard to grasp at first. I think that she describes Catherine Moreland's naivity very well and there is a very pleasing ending.
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Summary: Book Report and Criticism by Carmen Woode - Grade 12
Review: Northanger Abbey is a classic (time) about a seventeen year old girl who is invited to spend a period of time with some friends, Mr and Mrs Allen in Bath. While in Bath, Catherine meets the Tilneys (the General, Henry, and Isabella). Catherine is invited to go to Northanger Abbey, the title of the novel to spend some time with the Tilneys. While in Northanger Abbey, Catherine imagines some gruesome secrets surrounding the General, his wife and his house. The secrets are somehow revealed to the General who has Catherine ordered out of the house. Catherine returns to her home (her father, mother, and siblings) an altered person. Henry arrives at her house (he has evidently followed her) and asks for her hand in marriage. Catherine consents, and later the General gives his blessing on the marriage of his son and Catherine Morland. I did not like this book. Jane Austen satirizes the Gothic novels of her time. In order to truly understand "Northanger Abbey", I feel that you need an understanding of the Gothic novels of the Victorian era of literature. Despite this being a time classic, I felt that it was amazing that this book has withstood the test of time. I can not relate to Catherine, and the activities in which she engages. However, if you want to read a classic, Northanger Abbey is a good choice, as it teaches about the life of an upper class girl in Victorian society.
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Summary: A great Jane Austen satire of the gothic novels.
Review: If you've read Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, or any of the Victorian gothic novels and thought that the authors overdid it a bit, you'll love this. Jane Austen makes fun of every popular gothic novel of the time. The heroine not only had a pitifully inconsequential childhood, but couldn't seem to find any dark secrets or mystical adventures.
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Summary: A GOOD BOOK
Review: I realy enjoyed Northanger Abbey, it's a lighthearted and fun book that does'nt drag along for too long and after reading it you feel satisfied. i thought the use of humour in it was great and really liked all the characters. i throughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to everyone!!.
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Summary: Northanger Abbey is not great, but good
Review: It isn't a wonderful book, it isn't a great book, but it's a pretty good book and a nice read. Catherine Morland is a great character, and the plot is light hearted and fun. Some of the scenes are really funny, and it's a good light read. On the other hand, the whole thing has had an air of "rich people without problems amusing themselves", which is annoying, and parts of the book are dry. If you want a good book to waste away an afternoon, choose this. If you want a great classic, go elsewhere.
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Summary: Modern Readers get a through the looking glass feeling
Review: Years after taking literature classes that basically destroyed some of the world best books by disecting them to death, I decided to read some of the 'classics' simply as entertainment. Austen was on the top of my list. After reading Northanger Abbey, I think I'll eventually go thorough all of her works. Why? Well, it's like reading about an alien race and their customs and habits. I realize the society that she writes about was her own and not that long ago ... yet, it's so foreign when compared to today's society. It's like being plopped down in a foreign land and expected to relate to the natives -- and yet the characters are so vibrant that you find yourself drawn in. Catherine Morland is every person who takes people at face value -- if they are recommended as nice, kind, and entertaining people then they must be. In her sheltered life, that attitude has always worked. But on her first trip to Bath, Catherine has to learn to listen to her own heart, observe what others do and form her own opinions. Sounds simple but in that society, women weren't exactly encouraged to think for themselves. Catherine's active imagination, fueled by all the novels she has read, color her perceptions. She learns to recognize the difference between fantasy and reality but maintains her sense of humor. Delightful, insightful, and fun to read.
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Summary: Don't expect another "Pride and Prejudice".
Review: In the first chapter of "Northanger Abbey", Jane Austen introduces Catherine Morland and pretends to apologize for having such an unromantic heroine. In the next few chapters, Catherine appears to live up to her creator's apology, while the author appears to forget all about telling us about the abbey for which her novel is named. The presence of the two shockingly audacious and impudent Thorpes--John and Isabella--almost makes up for this. Never did I want to slap and/or kick two fictional characters more. The ways in which they try to foil Catherine's hope of romance with Henry Tilney--and arrange a marriage between the artful Isabella and Catherine's innocent, unsuspecting brother--are enough to make readers gnash their teeth. Ironically, the scenes with the charming Henry and his kind sister Eleanor ramble along in comparison to the explosive scenes "graced" by the outrageous Thorpes. I liked the last twelve chapters better. Actually set in Northanger Abbey, they are a hilarious satire of the nineteenth century Gothic novel. Catherine stumbles into misadventure after misadventure (if I may be so generous as to call them such), thanks to her wild imagination and voracious novel-reading. It is wonderful to be caught in the excitement of a (pseudo) Gothic mystery that readers know is not real, but that they understand _could_ be real. It's the excitement of telling ghost stories around a campfire then trying to get to sleep. Everyone believes that anything could happen, though anything rarely does. It's nice, safe, thrilling fun. In my opinion, Jane Austen was having so much fun herself, in writing these scenes, that she did not sufficiently develop the romance between Catherine and Henry. They have few scenes together and Henry's character is too agreeable to be as interesting as John Thorpe's--or even General Tilney's. (Jane Austen should have apologized for him instead of for Catherine. Henry Tilney is more a Mr. Bingley than a Mr. Darcy.) Despite this, "Northanger Abbey" has the expected happy romantic ending--with the author still giving cheeky asides to the reader. I'd still recommend this book . . . but only after "Pride and Prejudice", of course.
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Summary: Jane Austen's Most Mature Writing
Review: If you read this after Emma, you will see a slight but distinct maturing on the part of Austen. There is something more beautiful about the language, less playful perhaps, but more biting and more lively.
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Summary: Good book
Review: If you become interesting in this book, please read it before seeing the movie. The movie is disapionting due to liberties taken. This book is darker than other Jane Austen classics, but still worth a look. Austen gives the romance that I always crave with a mysterious edge that is new, but understanding due to what was popular at the time. One of my favorites.
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