Monday, April 9, 2007

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen


I enjoyed Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen a good bit. The book jacket described it as "the most joyous of Jane Austen's novels," so I looked forward to a light and encouraging read. That is pretty much how I would describe it. I wanted to read something by Jane Austen, because I wasn't sure I ever had. I may have read Pride and Prejudice in school, and I know I've seen the movie, and the movie of Emma as well.


Jane Austen was able to draw me into her characters, even with a somewhat detached third-person sort of story-telling. She begins the story about Catherine, the unlikely heroine, and periodically inserts her narrator's voice in this way throughout the story. However, in spite of this, I found myself saying, almost out loud at times, "How dare you do that! Leave her alone! Stop lying!" or something along those lines. It also made me long for the genteel life of a young English woman, with nothing more to do than read and discuss novels, take strolls, and enjoy elaborate meals, in between dances and other social events.

I wanted to dip into the Jane Austen well. I did, and I will do so again soon.


Posted by Jennifer Donovan, regular contributor

3 Comments:

Paula said...

Great idea. I heard about your blog on Crosswalk books. I have a site where I review books and one of my pages is written by my daughter for girls/teens. I'm going to ask her how she'd feel about linking to you here! Feel free to send your readers her way as well: http://soulscents.us/sarahsays.htm

Anonymous said...

I just got the complete works of Jane Austen--I'm looking forward to reading Northanger Abbey. :-)

Kelsey

Emily said...

I just got the complete works, too. I absolutely love Pride and Prejudice and Emma. I'm excited to read some of the others. I wasn't a huge fan of Sense and Sensibility, but I know a lot of people are.

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