Northanger Abbey, a novel by Jane Austen

 

The bulk of Jane Austen’s novels were revised for publication a considerable time after they were first written, and it is often impossible to tell how much rewriting was involved in the revision.

‘Northanger Abbey’ was originally written in 1797 and 1798, finally being finished in 1803. It was only published posthumously in 1818 (along with ‘Persuasion’), and it was therefore the first complete novel to have been written despite the appearance of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility’ several years previously.

‘Northanger Abbey’ is the story of Catherine Morland, a somewhat ordinary girl, goodhearted and rather simple, who spends some weeks in Bath with friends of her family and makes various friends and acquaintances while there.

She meets Henry Tilney and his sister. Catherine falls in love with Henry and is invited to the Tilney’s family home under Henry’s father’s impression that she is a wealthy heiress who would make a good match for his son. The house – Northanger Abbey – is an old abbey building that Catherine expects to be just like the ancient ghost-ridden buildings that she has read about in the Gothic horror novels - particularly those of Ann Radcliffe – that were very popular at the time.

Things go wrong for Catherine when Henry’s father discovers that she is not a rich heiress after all and throws her out. However, everything works out all right eventually and the hero and heroine end up happily married.

The plot might sound dull enough, but the novel is far from dull, despite Jane Austen’s refusal to use any of the more violent contemporary novelistic devices in order to enliven it. The life of the novel comes from the combination of wit and profound sense of the meaning and interest of the events of daily life in the social world that Jane Austen knew so well.

Although the irony is somewhat cruder than that produced by Jane Austen in her later novels, it is always carefully poised and well directed. The tone is not burlesque or mock-heroic, and a note of affectionate understanding runs together with the irony.

It is noticeable that although Jane Austen pokes affectionate fun at Catherine’s ridiculous romantic expectations of a haunted house, this is only done to emphasise that real life can be every bit as interesting and enjoyable.

Catherine’s actual romance with Henry is not expressed in the passionate tones of later romantic novelists, but it is nonetheless sensitive and true.

One thing we can learn from this novel is that Jane Austen truly understood how young people come to fall in love, realising exactly the degree to which Nature imitates Art and the varying parts played by admiration, gratitude and vanity.

‘Northanger Abbey’ is rarely regarded as one of Jane Austen’s best novels, and it is only fully appreciated by those who have a basic knowledge of the Gothic horror tradition at which she pokes gentle fun, but it is certainly worth a read.

© John Welford