"Northanger Abbey"
by Jane Austen.
Synopsis: Catherine Morland is the heroine of Jane Austen's version of a gothic style novel.
Most of the action takes place in Bath where Catherine is accompanying her neighbours, Mr and Mrs Allen.
She is seventeen, well-brought up and ready for an adventure.
The social conventions of the time make it difficult for her to make new friends - until they come across the Thorpe family.
There are three young ladies in this family and their brother. Catherine quickly becomes 'best friends' with the oldest daughter, Isabella, and is herself pursued by Isabella's brother John.
It turns out that Isabella is acquainted with Catherine's older brother, James, to whom she has become rather rapidly engaged,
so it is wholly appropriate for them to spend a good deal of time together - though even Catherine is unsure of the propriety of riding around in a carriage for two with a young man she has only just met!
At the same time Catherine becomes acquainted with a brother and sister, Henry and Eleanor Tilney.
There are scrapes and misunderstandings as Isabella switches her allegiances between James (to whom she has become rather rapidly engaged) and a newcomer - Henry's older brother, Captain Tilney.
Dear sweet, straight-forward, naive Catherine cannot see through Isabella's self-grasping shallowness and is very hurt by Isabella's defection to Captain Tilney, on her own account and that of her brother.
Despite Isabella and John's machinations - and partly because of them - Catherine finds herself invited to spend time with Eleanor at their home, Northanger Abbey.
Thanks to her avid reading of the gothic novels of the time - also enjoyed by Henry, though spurned by John who is only interested in horses and money - she looks forward to an exciting, if potentially scary! visit.
The story then moves to Northanger Abbey where she is warmly welcomed by Eleanor and Henry's father, General Tilney.
Henry has his own separate establishment so Catherine and Eleanor spend a good time alone together, when the General is done with showing off the property and his offices and gardens.
The General seems very happy to have Catherine there, and not just for his daughter's benefit.
He makes numerous allusions to the possibility of Catherine marrying his son, Henry - most blatantly when they visit Henry's home, Woodston.
Then suddenly everything changes drastically for the worst.
The General claims he has a prior engagement which forces him to send Catherine home, unceremoniously on her own, at 7am next day.
Both Eleanor and Catherine are devastated; Henry is away from the Abbey at the time, so knows nothing of what is happening.
Catherine travels home completely alone, changing carriage several times on a journey that takes all day, and for which she had no money: this is provided by Eleanor, as she is leaving.
Heartbroken and uncomprehending of this abrupt change in her fortunes, Catherine is fortunately welcomed home by her loving and sensible family.
All is soon well, however.
As soon as Henry finds out what has happened, he hurries over to sort things out and ask for Catherine's hand in marriage.
Her parents quickly agree, though they stipulate that Henry's father must also give his consent.
It turns out that the main miscreant in the affair has been John Thorpe.
When he first met James, and then Catherine, he filled his own head with exaggerations of how well off the Morlands and the Allens were and boasted of this to the General -
under the illusion that he himself would marry Catherine and thus be extremely well connected.
When John finds out that Catherine does NOT want to marry him, he completely reverses his views on the families' finances and tells the General so.
Catherine's lack of worldly experience is demonstrated again in her acceptance of the General's professions on the unimportance of money when considering friendships and relationships.
She cannot understand how someone can say this and then cast her out when he finds her family to be less well off than he had been led to believe (though she is not told this at the time).
At last the happy couple are married and quite possibly live happily ever after.
Throughout the story, Jane Austen makes comments on all sorts of subject, from the state and purpose of the novel itself, to the shallowness of the interactions between some individuals and groups of people.
The language used is quite challenging and forces one to slow down and think about what is being said, which in my opinion is no bad thing.
The final sentence is an example of this kind of structure:
I leave it to be settled by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendence of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.
Gwynneth
November 2025
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