Chain Reading

If you've never read Jane Austen before, don't start with this one. Northanger Abby is a departure from the Austen style made famous in her other five novels. First, it is self-conciously concerned with books which were popular at the time that Austen was writing, and with the characters in those books. A knowledge of those books would certainly enhance the pleasure which is to be gained from Northanger Abby. A lack of such knowlegde doesn't detract from the narrative, but the very different popular culture of today's age does make Catherine Morland, the heroine, and Austen's writing style in this novel, slightly outmoded and antiquated. In keeping with her commentary on the horridness of gothic romance writing, Austen adopts the habit of constantly drawing the reader out of the narrative by reminding you that you are reading a book which she is writing. This "editorialising" prevents the read from ever becoming properly escapist.

The story concerns the very provincial and naive Catherine Morland's visit to Bath. In Bath she meets the Thorpes and the Tilneys who open her mind to the ways of the world and leave her, at the book's end, a sounder character than when she begin. The plot accelerates almost over-hastily at the end to wrap up in an unsatisfying two chapters devoid of the detail which populates the first three-quarters of the read. Austen's wit is ever-present throughout and her characterisation and dialogue are masterful.