Northanger Abbey

Title: Northanger Abbey
Author: Jane Austen
Penguin Classics, 1994 (1818, published posthumously)

I think I will have to devote a separate post to explain why I love Jane Austen, but I suspect some of the reasons will be made obvious here. Northanger Abbey was Austen's first novel, although not published until after her death. I read it about ten years ago and my impression then was that of a writer who had not yet come into her own. On rereading it though, I have to abandon my former opinion. She doesn't put a foot wrong even this early on in her writing career! The language is funny, ironic, quirky and oh so smooth. The heroine might be a bit more naive and simple than the later ones, but I would attribute that to lack of life experience rather than literary skills on the author's part.

The plot: young girl travels to Bath and meets hunkydory man. She is invited to his home by his sister. His home is an old abbey, a kind of dwelling she feels she is thouroughly aquainted with through all the Gothic horror novels she has read. Her imagination gets her carried away though and she is forced to grow up quite a bit before she wins her man.