Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen’s shortest novel published posthumously in 1818. This is another novel set in the background of the 18th century England. The novel is a mockery, especially on the works of Ann Radcliffe.
The story revolves around Catherine Moorland and her travails into the mysteries enveloping the Northanger Abbey. Catherine is a seventeen-year-old girl. She visits Bath in search of love and friendship. She finds both in Isabella Thorpe and Henry Tilney respectively. The parties, balls, horse-rides and other enjoyments of Bath form the first half of the story. It is only much later that Catherine accompanies Miss Tilney and Henry to their residence, Northanger Abbey. Here, Catherine, driven by her own vivid imaginations, thanks to the many mystery novels that she had been reading lately, sets off to solve the non-existent mystery. Her trials and humiliations at the abbey come to an end with wedding bells ringing for her marriage with Henry Tilney.
Catherine’s character is very subtly drawn. Miss Austen presents her heroine as a very young girl who is easily deceived by people and by her own thoughts. Her relationship with the Thorpes proves this point. The other characters are passable. This is one novel where Miss Austen fails to mesmerize with her unique style of defining characters. At the end, the story falls very flat.
Being a fan of Jane Austen, this novel was a very big disappointment for me. But I have begun with Austen’s next- Mansfield Park, which promises a lot more than Northanger Abbey ever did.