Northanger Abbey

 Finally a book that I’ve actually enjoyed! Northanger Abbey was not at all what I had expected. Just the way they beginning is set up you know that you’re in store for something far different than Romance of the Forest or Castle of Otranto  In this novel the heroine isn’t at risk of being killed or raped or set to marry a wicked older man. Instead she’s just an everyday girl from the time period that looking for a taste of that mystery and adventure. It’s a nice departure from the earlier novels we’ve read in class that portray women as helpless and just down right annoying with all the fainting. The fact that this is a parody speaks volumes about society of the time. The time it takes when discussing gothic novels and in the section considered “Austen’s Manifesto” says so much about what the author thought about novels and those who wrote and read them. I felt like I could better to relate to Austen’s characters than I could to Radcliff’s. Catherine is a bit like everyone, bright eyed and looking to really see the world, but the world isn’t exactly how she pictured it. People are not always honest or they don’t always have the best intentions. But most importantly, life is not a gothic novel, not everyone is a murderer or can find a skeleton in a secret passage or a manuscript in a chest. Catherine learns this the hard way when she is caught snooping and is reprimanded that life just can’t be what she imagines it to be in the books. But she soon has this epiphany and is able to put her imagination in check so that she can marry the man she loves and live a normal life without skeletons, manuscripts, or anything else gothic.