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terça-feira, 20 de setembro de 2011

It is a truth universally acknowledged...

...that starting anything related to Jane Austen with that line is a terrible cliché and people should stop doing it.

It took me a while to decide what to write about, which book to pick, but after thorough consideration I decided to write about one of her most underappreciated books: Pride & Prejudice. A novel about life in the genteel rural society of the late 18th century.


Okay,no. This post will actually be about one of my favourite books by her and one that I do find to be "underappreciated", although considering it's a Jane Austen novel it's hardly that (if at all). The book in question is called Northanger Abbey and it was the first book Austen completed - written between the years of 1798 and 1799, but only revised and published in 1803.

The book is a parody gothic novels that were popular at the time, in particular Ann Radcliffe's
The Mysteries of Udolpho, a novel about the plights of a girl that ends up imprisoned in a castle. In Northanger Abbey things happen in a similar fashion except that gotchic novel fan Catherine Morland (and also our heroine) is not as much improsoned as a guest at Northanger Abbey. But, as usual, I'm getting ahead of myself.

It all starts when 17-year-old Catherine and friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen go to Bath, this being Catherine's first visit there. There she makes friends such as the Thorpe siblings and finds herself being pursued by one rough-mannered Jonh Thorpe and the charming and knowledgeable Henry Tilney (one guess to whom is the real love interest). Catherine also makes friends with Henry's younger sister Eleanor. Eventually, General Tilney (Henry and Eleanor's father) invites Catherine to visit them at Northanger Abbey, which our impressionable heroine is sure can only be as filled with horror and mystery as castle Udolpho.

Spoiler:
Needless to say she's wrong and ends up making quite a fool of herself. You shouldn't read this novel if getting second-hand embarrassment is a big problem to you (fair warning).

Northanger Abbey's strong point is the prose, the text is absolutely hilarious and even though Catherine is a foolish teenager and you may want to slap her upside the head on more than one occasion, Henry makes up for it by being full of the best commentary and snark. I don't buy the romantic connection between the two, but maybe that's just me. In fact, that's my one complaint about the novel because even Catherine's character is satirical and fitting.

The book is very short so reading it doesn't take long at all and I give my word that it will be time well spent.

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