Northanger Abbey

I think modern readers will be tempted to say the style feels incomplete, but to me the stark elegance of the prose is really refreshing. Austen novels happen after you close the book because they ask a great deal of the imagination and reward you for it. It is no small feat to set up the expectation of subverting the expectations of a "gothic" novel, and yet somehow creating a mystery that keeps you turning the pages.

I loved it. Put in the time. Take a few minutes on hard sentences or paragraphs (english has changed), and it will really reward you.

Als ich Northanger Abbey las, hatte ich das Gefühl, eine liebevolle Parodie zu betreten – ein Augenzwinkern an alle, die sich schon einmal von Büchern in fremde Welten entführen ließen. Die junge Catherine Morland, unschuldig, lebhaft und mit einem Kopf voller Schauerromane, ist eine Heldin, die mir sofort ans Herz gewachsen ist.

Austen begleitet Catherine von ihrem beschaulichen Heimatdorf ins gesellschaftliche Treiben von Bath. Ich konnte fast das Murmeln in den Ballsälen hören, das Rascheln der Kleider spüren. Catherine begegnet neuen Freunden, darunter der charmante Henry Tilney, und wird schließlich eingeladen, seine Familie in deren Landsitz Northanger Abbey zu besuchen.

Hier beginnt die eigentliche Komödie: Catherines Fantasie, gefüttert von Gothic Novels, verwandelt das alte Haus in eine Bühne für Geheimnisse und Gefahren, die es gar nicht gibt. Ich habe mich köstlich amüsiert – und zugleich gespürt, wie Austen die Grenzen zwischen Einbildung und Realität mit feiner Ironie auslotet.

Was mich besonders begeistert hat, ist Austens Humor. Sie lacht nie über ihre Figuren, sondern mit ihnen. Gleichzeitig zeigt sie, wie leicht wir uns von Geschichten leiten lassen – und wie wichtig es ist, dabei den Blick für die Wahrheit nicht zu verlieren.

Northanger Abbey war für mich wie ein Tanz zwischen Witz und Wärme. Als ich das Buch schloss, hatte ich nicht nur gelächelt, sondern mich auch ein Stück selbst erkannt – in meinen eigenen Tagträumen und in der Freude, sie manchmal einfach zu genießen.

Maybe 3.5 stars. While Austen has a facility with the language, and an excellent ability to convey a convincing character, there are too many authorial issues which intrude for my tastes. I am not a fan of the author's frequent breaches of the fourth wall, though I recognize that authorial interjection was much more prevalent in previous times. I also feel that the overall novel is a bit of a mash-up, combining merely another of Austen's tales of romance and socio-economic standing with her supposed satirical take on the atmosphere-heavy Gothic novels of the period. The latter seems a bit too wedged into the former, with the titular Abbey itself not even appearing until two-thirds into the novel. Catherine's melodramatic predictions and fears may be overturned one by one by the banalities of reality in a fairly amusing manner, but it has little to do with the rest of the story, and when it runs its course it is immediately dropped. For that matter, it seems almost antithetical to Austen's earlier tangent upon novels of the day, including the famous quote “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” Catherine seems nothing but silly ... perhaps even stupid ... in her novel-infused anticipations of the Abbey, which Austen goes to great lengths to pick apart. I also do not find Henry entirely convincing as Catherine's partner (I don't feel a spoiler warner is really necessary here, since Austen novels are hardly in doubt as to their inevitable outcomes), in that he seems far too pleased to mock her at times. And of course, ultimately, I continue to be unsatisfied with Austen's perpetual focus on such a limited slice of the population, and its dances, meals, country homes, and love affairs.