Northanger Abbey

 

Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

Catherine Morland is 17 and a gentle soul. She’s also naïve and has no idea the sort of situations she’s about to be put into when she travels from her home to the resort town of Bath, nor the sort of people she’s going to meet during her stay.

Jane Austen is a master at writing characters and each one of them in the novel feels alive and unique. The narrator also pokes plenty of fun at the society and culture of the day, with an especially delightful satire of the popular gothic novels at the time.

This is among the shorter novels by Austen and a rather simple story, but it is a very fun read which rewards the reader throughout. In it, Austen tells of the importance of reading novels, in a fun wink to her audience, as well as the merits of forging your own way, even when parents believe otherwise. A common trope is Austen’s novels is the humorous absurdity of the parents, but in this story, Catherine’s parents are wonderfully practical and levelheaded, and an example to all those who look after children of their own.

Like all of Austen’s work, the wit and fun in Northanger Abbey is consistent and good natured, and the morals and messages in the story can be carried with the reader long after the final page. For a book that can be read in just a few days, Northanger Abbey will stick with the reader and likely be revisited and enjoyed more each time.