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Title: Northanger Abbey (Ultimate Classics) by Jane Austen, Glenda Jackson ISBN: 1-59007-130-1 Publisher: New Millennium Audio Pub. Date: July, 2002 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 4 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.98 (54 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A lighthearted novel with a satiric twist
Comment: I spent most of the story wishing to dance with the witty Henry Tilney, slap the artful and manipulative Isabella, lose my temper with the deceitful John, and give Catherine Morland a good shake to knock some sense into her.
That said, any book that can drag me into the characters' lives as Northanger Abbey did is praiseworthy. It's an easy read once you get the hang of the language.
I really enjoyed Austen's tongue-in-cheek lambasting of novelists whose heroines never read novels - "Yes, novels; for I will not adopt that ingenerous and impolitic custom so common with novel-writers, of degrading by their contemptuous censure the very performances, to the number of which they are themselves adding-joining with their greatest enemies in bestowing the harshest epithets on such works, and scarcely ever permitting them to be read by their own heroine, who, if she accidentally take up a novel, is sure to turn over its insipid pages with disgust." Her derision for the flights of fancy of the Gothic novelists of the day are readily apparent throughout the novel. Catherine imagines herself in romantic, mysterious situations (found in her favorite novel, Udolpho), as when she first thinks of her upcoming visit to the Abbey: "To see and explore either the ramparts and keep of the one, or the cloisters of the other, had been for many weeks a darling wish, though to be more than the visitor of an hour had seemed too nearly impossible for desire." Yet when she arrives she is disappointed in its modernity and normalcy - something that wouldn't be tolerated in a Gothic tale!
If the ends of books are like desserts, then the end of Northanger Abbey could be compared to Jell-O rather than Cherries Jubilee, but the readers should focus on the meat and potatoes instead. All in all, an enjoyable read.
Rating: 5
Summary: A beautifully written satire of the Gothic novel
Comment: Jane Austen was arguably one of the best writers of her time; however, only she took the bold leap into poking fun at the books of her time. Northanger Abbey brings Catherine, the heroine (on whom, among other things, Austen periodically comments from afar) through the joys and troubles of being an eligible young lady with a probing mind and endearing naivete, acquired from none other than the countless novels she has read. The elegance, and at some points speed, with which Austen plays out and then reconciles her young heroine's difficulties is at the very least extremely amusing. The foolish suspense and embarrassed relief which center around the Abbey are no less entertaining when one considers this book against darker novels where the papers in locked drawers have slightly more bearing. Catherine's friend Isabella, her vain (and in-vain) suitor John, and Mr. and Miss Tilney are brilliant foils for her character's development. Overall, I think this book rates as one of the true gems of the 19th Century.
Rating: 2
Summary: just not good
Comment: Many of the references Austen made in Northanger Abbey were meant to be satirical towards the gothic writing style prevalent in her time. Certain elements of wordplay in her characters' dialogue will also sound dated to a modern reader. For example, Catherine describes a popular gothic novel as being "Horrible", which can be taken as "Awful" or that the book was scary, which is a way the word was used in the author's time.
Having said this, the book is slow, and is not as easy and interesting to read as her other novels, which can be explained by saying that this is her first attempt, and improvement was inevitable. The characters were not well-developed; I didn't understand the love-interest and I didn't believe that these two people were suited for each other. Again, she improved later.
If you choose to read this book, try to get an edition with notes on the text.It will help a great deal in clarifying that which is now a centuries-old inside joke.
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Title: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen ISBN: 0451526295 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Persuasion by Jane Austen ISBN: 0451526384 Publisher: Signet Classics Pub. Date: 01 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Emma by Jane Austen ISBN: 0553212737 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1984 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Sense and Sensibility (Oxford World's Classics) by Jane Austen, James Kinsley ISBN: 0192833588 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ISBN: 0553213105 Publisher: Bantam Classics Pub. Date: 01 July, 1981 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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