As this is my favorite quote from Northanger Abbey, I really feel like Austen believed this herself. With all the books I've read from her so far, friendships and connections were very important if not vital for her. It keeps me in amazement about life for women back in the 19th century before 'Women's Rights', the idea of a women not being allowed to own property, or to work outside of the home; not being able to choose which path of life to follow, her career path, being a homemaker (wife and/or mother) or even to attempt the fragile balance of both. For women, having the right friendship and/ or connection, was the only choice in Austen's time.
Could a man be content with a woman who was penniless, with hardly any dowry, a woman who could hardly afford to buy sugar, or is it more sensible to find a woman with the right connections and family legacy?
What I loved most about Northanger Abbey was Austen's taking the opportunity to inject some 'Gothic Romance' into her writing, as the heroine in this story has an obsession with Radcliffe's, 'Mysteries of Udolpho', which I am planning on reading for my 'Classics written by a woman', and how this obession leads our heroine on a precarious and uncertain path.
One part I enjoyed most is how the hero, Mr. Tilney compares a Country-dance to 'an emblem of marriage', That, 'fidelity and complaisance are the pricipal duties of both'. And our dear heroine, Miss Morland, fails to see the connection, stating 'that when people marry, they can never part. People that dance, only stand opposite each other in a long room for half an hour'. (Austen 67) To this, Mr. Tilney points out that MEN have the advantage of choice, and WOMEN the power of refusal. This part of the story is a wonderful exchange of points of view on the duties of both, and how our hero Mr. Tilney shows courage and further endures Miss Morland to him. This connection and actual attachment are the beginnings of the beautiful and heart wrenching romance of this novel.
I thoroughly enjoyed 'Northanger Abbey' as much as her other novels, 'Sense and Sensibility', 'Emma' and 'Pride and Prejudice', in the way she connects friendships and relationships, the life of romance at the time, and the importance of dancing.
This novel satisfies A 19thCentury classic for the Back to the Classics 2021 Challenge.
I love this Jane Austen novel. It's just so fun, and Catherine Morland is such a great character. And I love all those tongue-in-cheek Gothic elements. :D
ReplyDeleteI found your lovely blog through the 19th century category of Back to Classics. I read Northanger Abbey last year and enjoyed the Gothic Romance aspect of it, especially the comical blunders Catherine makes about the father. Glad you enjoyed it! Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility are tied as my favorite Austens so far.
ReplyDeleteHere is my review of 19th century pick: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, if interested!
https://elle-alice.blogspot.com/2021/03/classics-club-wives-and-daughters.html
I think this message of this novel is to keep reading serious novels. Austen subverts the gothic conventions to encourage the reader to come off it and get real, get something more substantial out of reading than mere surprise, wonder, fear, and foreboding. She has her characters use the word “amazement” and “amazingly” to show what noodles they are, reading novels just to get sensational feelings. I'm all for sensational novels, just not all the time.
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