Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment.
MY BOOK BEGINNING
No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine.
-- from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. Everyone knows the opening sentence from Pride & Prejudice ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."), but I think all her opening sentences are excellent, especially this one.
I just finished reading Northanger Abbey as part of my project to reread all six of Austen's major novels to celebrate her 250th birthday. I had forgotten how funny it is! All her books have humor in them, but this one is a satire of the popular Gothic novels of the day, and is particularly funny. I loved it.
YOUR BOOK BEGINNING
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Towards the end of the morning, however, Catherine, having occasion for some indispensable yard of ribbon which must be bought without a moment’s delay, walked out into the town, and in Bond Street overtook the second Miss Thorpe as she was loitering towards Edgar’s Buildings between two of the sweetest girls in the world, who had been her dear friends all the morning. From her, she soon learned that the party to Clifton had taken place.
During an eventful season at Bath, young, naïve Catherine Morland experiences the joys of fashionable society for the first time. She is delighted with her new acquaintances: flirtatious Isabella, who shares Catherine's love of Gothic romance and horror, and sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney, who invite her to their father's mysterious house, Northanger Abbey. There, her imagination influenced by novels of sensation and intrigue, Catherine imagines terrible crimes committed by General Tilney. With its broad comedy and irrepressible heroine, this is the most youthful and and optimistic of Jane Austen's works.
I have enjoyed all of the Austen novels I have read so far, including this one. I am glad it is as good re-reading it as it is the first time! Have a good weekend!
ReplyDeleteI'm reading this right now, too. Though it is a reread for me I am reading it with new eyes and see how it is considered not as well written as Austen's other books. I still love it.
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