Jane Austen’s first novel, Northanger Abbey, is about an unlikely English heroine named Catherine Morland. Catherine is the fifth of ten children in a financially comfortable family. While comfortable, they are not especially wealthy being a household under a clergyman with ‘a considerable independence, besides two good livings’ [a private fortune besides having benefices] (pg 7). She is not very bright at all; she prefers boys’ play to girls, and is slightly puckish. She enjoys getting into things that she is not supposed to. A great reader of Gothic novels (her favorite being Ann Radcliffe’s 1794 novel The Mysteries of Udolpho), she is prone to fall into obviously innocent situations with very dramatic views of it and great—not necessarily good—outcomes. Miss Morland is rather plain with strong features, much like the rest of the Morlands.

Her parents, while very fond of their daughter, sent her away with two near neighbours to Bath for six weeks during January and February (probably of 1798). In Bath Catherine befriends two different families: the Thorpes and the Tilneys. Of the Thorpes, she favors the eldest daughter and son, Isabella and John. Isabella is an absent-minded, fickle and silly girl; John is fierce and rather lecherous. The Tilneys are thoroughly well-bred and wealthy. Henry and Eleanor, Catherine’s two particular friends of the bunch, are both polite and gentle. Henry is steady and independent, owning his own home while still taking care to visit his family at Northanger Abbey regularly, as his mother passed away seven years earlier. Eleanor is sensible and quiet, a true gentlewoman.

Surprisingly, Catherine’s older brother James is good friends with John Thorpe. The four—Catherine, James, Isabella and John—totter around Bath together, attending parties and enjoying walks and rides. Isabella and James are soon engaged; John is after Catherine, much to her dismay. Catherine is rather partial to Henry Tilney…

The Tilneys take a great liking to Catherine and invite her to stay with them in Northanger Abbey for a few weeks. Reverend and Mrs. Morland give their consent, and Catherine is swept away from Bath, her friend and brother’s unseemly engagement, and into an actual abbey. Her senses come alive as she is imaginatively tortured by what she has read in Udolpho. She is caught by Henry lurking about the abbey in a suspicious manner, as if trying to figure out if his father murdered his mother.

Catherine’s imagination and dark reading are not all that lead her to the conclusion that Mrs. Tilney was murdered. Captain Tilney is a stubborn, almost violent man. Henry explains to her, in an almost impatient manner, that he was with his mother during her last days and no, indeed, she was not murdered. Catherine is put to shame. This leads to the theme of Northanger Abbey: Self-created drama leads to embarrassment. It is also a symbol: Anything overly-anticipated always ends in disappointment of some sort.

Henry keeps Catherine’s foible a secret, but she is soon banished from the house. Captain Tilney first approved of the attraction between Henry and Catherine, but found out that her family was not rich enough to supply a fortune for his (already rich) son in the marriage. Catherine and her dear friends are parted.

Coinciding with her own devastation of love is the sharp ending of James and Isabella’s engagement. Isabella, apparently, was flirting around with a lingering Tilney brother and broke James’s heart. Catherine is so horribly torn by this she vows to never think of Isabella again.

Jane Austen's books were prescribed as therapy during war for soldiers. It was therapeutic even for me to read in my very own home. It really brings out the teenage, best friend sort of side of you.

I loved Northanger Abbey best of all the Jane Austen novels. After reading it in three days, I can certainly understand why her books were read as therapy to wounded soldiers. It brings out the familiar experiences with good friends, especially ones leading to unwonted romances.

I really enjoyed reading about Catherine’s big mistakes. Her curiosity in the abbey always lead to trouble for her. Any avid reader could relate to this; an experience so irrefutably similar to one read about in a novel that trying what the protagonist did is irresistible. That always boils down to trouble for the reader.

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Created Jan 16, 2006 at 11:22am • Submit your own review...