This is not a review. See why.
Context
Catherine Morland is a well-meaning but sheltered young woman. Restless and not terribly interested in her studies, she grows up reading Gothic novels (predecessors to today’s horror novels) and wandering outside her family’s estate. When she is eighteen, a couple of family friends (the Allens) ask her to accompany them to Bath for a few weeks. It’s Catherine’s first taste of society, with balls, musical performances to attend, and a litany of rules that must be followed—otherwise one risks being ostracized.
After being briefly lonely in Bath, Mrs. Allen meets an old schoolfriend and Catherine befriends her daughter Isabella Thorpe. At a ball, she meets a kind young man named Henry Tilney—and thus the tangled romantic web begins. Isabella appears to fall in love with Catherine’s older brother James and Isabella’s brother John makes clumsy advances toward an oblivious Catherine. Meanwhile, Catherine grows close to both Henry and his sister Eleanor, and their older brother flirts with Isabella. After navigating all of this for a few weeks, Catherine is invited to the Tilney family home, Northanger Abbey, where she must deal with the imposing General Tilney and the specter of the late Mrs. Tilney.
Key Ideas (Overall evaluation: good)
Maturing requires learning how to evaluate others
Friends who contradict themselves are probably not true friends
Others’ rudeness isn’t always about you
Maturing requires learning how to evaluate others
Austenites often refer to Northanger Abbey as different from Austen’s other books in that it’s a parody of a particular kind of Gothic novel (several are mentioned by name in the book, and one author, Ann Radcliffe, is mentioned repeatedly). But it fits neatly into Austen’s canon; it primarily tells the story of a young woman going through a growth arc in relation to a romantic relationship, seasoned with a dash of social commentary. In this case, Catherine is initially naive and the story is one of her learning to better judge others.
Because her family members are simple, honest people, it never even occurs to her that others might behave differently. Her first experience with the opposite is through John Thorpe, her new friend’s brother. In order to get Catherine to accompany them on a day trip when she was supposed to have gone for a walk with the Tilneys, John lies and says he saw them out walking alone headed somewhere entirely different. Upon learning the truth, Catherine is shocked anyone would deliberately deceive her like that. She insists on making amends to the Tilneys and, importantly, doesn’t believe John the next time he tries to pull a similar stunt. This is the beginning of her learning to be cautious around others, but she must go through an even more dramatic change in her perception of General Tilney’s character before she really reaches a more mature way of evaluating others and earns her “happily ever after.” Judging others is a tricky business that relies on lots of factors; Catherine learns to expand the possibilities of what she considers another person’s motives to be—but only within the realm of what is reasonably likely.
Friends who contradict themselves are probably not true friends
Another factor Catherine learns to consider as an important piece of evidence when evaluating others is whether they habitually contradict themselves. We see such contradictions in a number of characters, but it is perhaps most obvious in Isabella Thorpe, who ends up deeply disappointing Catherine. Isabella says she does not want to be seen by a pair of gentlemen, but then insists they follow said pair of gentlemen. She tells James Morland “I shall not speak another word to you all the rest of the evening; so I charge you not to expect it”—then, after a brief conversation with Catherine, ignores her the rest of the evening to speak to James (48). In short, Isabella’s word means next to nothing. Catherine is at first confused by this but doesn’t think much of it, then becomes concerned by her behavior, and eventually is seriously disappointed and ceases to consider Isabella a friend. Some people outright deceive us; others make their inconsistencies so clear that all we have to do is pay attention. We shouldn’t fall into the trap of considering this latter category to be friends.
*Spoiler alert: The next section relies on reveals from the end of the book*
Others’ rudeness isn’t always about you
At some point your parents or perhaps a teacher or grandparent probably told you that other people being mean to you usually says more about them than it does about you; this is another lesson Catherine must learn. Henry’s father, General Tilney, seems very interested in her and promotes Catherine and Henry getting married, even inviting her to come and stay at the family estate. Then suddenly General Tilney insists that she leave early the next morning, with no explanation. This startling rudeness is offensive even to the easygoing Catherine, who wonders what she could possibly have done to cause it. But it turns out that the issue was that the General had believed someone else’s baseless assertion that Catherine had a much larger fortune than she actually did, and was interested in her money being brought into the family, not in her. This entire chain of events, of General Tilney being deceived and then undeceived and acting accordingly, occurred without Catherine’s participation, knowledge, or even suspicion—but wouldn’t have happened at all if General Tilney, who himself had quite a comfortable fortune, had been less greedy for his son or less of a social climber.
The Vibe
It is mostly lighthearted and fun; Catherine has an easy, contented manner. Her musings are interspersed with Austen’s signature wit, keeping it entertaining. The Gothic element comes in mainly at Northanger, but it is clear very quickly that there is nothing genuinely scary at work—it is only Catherine’s runaway imagination. Her overly dramatic fantasies are shut down the moment she realizes she’s seriously mistaken (another Austen signature), which is fairly quick and minor compared to the anguish some Austen characters feel—and share with the audience—when they discover their errors (Emma and Lizzie Bennet both suffer severely upon discovering how they’ve been unjust to others).
Conclusion
Northanger Abbey is a light, fun story of an innocent girl enthralled by horror stories learning more about “the real world” and the true nature of some people’s less-than-innocent motives. In doing so, she both makes a friend and falls in love, and so after learning the error of her ways, she enjoys a happy ending.