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As this book has just celebrated 200 years since publication, and I’m not that much younger, I thought it was high time I read it and found out why its popularity is so enduring. None of the dramatisations had whetted my appetite; I found them slow-paced and tedious.
This one gives the clash of values characteristic of the writer, with wealth and temptation and opportunity versus rectitude and character and propriety as well as prudence playing the major part. How love itself must give way to rectitude and character is the chief theme, with the obvious lesson that giving way to temptation for now might close the door to happiness, love and future in fact. The final verdict: At long last, I can finally appreciate most of Austen’s work, hurray! I am giving it the full five stars because her development of characters and social situations makes for fascinating reading when you get right down to it. I still have not quite warmed up to “Pride and Prejudice”, but who knows? I promise to give it another chance, I may become the admiring convert, prejudice finally exchanged for undying appreciation. Couples that might change the world with their love are torn asunder by a disapproving bunch of relatives or even religious heads with their "concern" for the "soul" of the one who might bring wonderious gifts but is not one of them (hence the gifts of course), and the miracle that would have been the families and souls generated with such love are nipped in the bud. Of course, it is only the couple that knows the tremendous love and the pain and suffering of being torn asunder, while others merely go about congratulating one another for having averted an unsuitable match with an outsider. No one wears nice clothes anymore unless they have white collar job, and even then it seems some are casual dress. Kids today can wear pajamas to school. Where's our dignity today? Seriously! I enjoyed this one, perhaps because it wasn't quite as obvious how everything would play out (not the ending, but how it would get there). enjoyable!In between was his aunt arriving haughtily to obtain a reassuarance from her to the effect that she would not marry him - which not only made her stubborn but made the three concerned (the two and the aunt) realise that she might be considering it seriously, although his offer had not been left on the table indefinitely.
And that reminds me, that the twists at the end of NA are as fast-paced and breathtaking as in any of the later books. Also, the sketch of Catherine's mother, at the end, as a sort of overworked, over anxious, barely affectionate country parson's wife is very well done. Often people of a bit less comprehension are likely to make the mistake of a common sort, where they conclude "Elizabeth married Darcy not out of love, but for his money". She - the writer - herself makes a joke of the sort, somewhere along towards the end, but it is clearly a joke for all that. Elizabeth might not have been sighing and fainting with passionate abandon at first sight, but that is because unlike figures of trashy pulp she is a person with a mind and other concerns as well, and for a normal young woman passion does not necessarily come as the blinding flash at first sight any more than it does for - say - a writer or a poet or an artist or a scientist. Which does not reduce the final outcome of a certainty when it does come. Elizabeth married for her conviction of love, respect and rectitude, not for money. Charlotte’s first glance told her that Sir Edward’s air was that of a lover. There could be no doubt of his devotion to Clara. How Clara received it was less obvious, but she was inclined to think not very favourably; for though sitting thus apart with him (which probably she might not have been able to prevent, her air was calm and grave."
The not so well to do young woman is taken to a resort by comparatively well to do relatives and is invited by the master of the Northanger Abbey, the father of the young and eligible gentleman who has a mutual attracted to her and courting her, to stay with him and his family, under the impression the she is going to inherit the relatives' money. Now, brings me to my last point. Masculinity. Women have read these books since forever and I've always heard them goo-goo and ga-ga over Mr. Darcy and other men in these books. Why? It's because they are masculine men. These men are gentleman, good, kind, and respectful. Girls like that. However, today, the masculine man is being demonized. Wer denkt, dass der Bogen ins 20. Jahrhundert weit genug gezogen ist, wenn es um kulturhistorische Kontextualisierungen moderner Literatur geht, liegt falsch.
My dear, you are too particular," said her husband. "What does all that signify? You will see nothing of it by candlelight. It will be as clean as Randalls by candlelight. We never see any thing of it on our club-nights." Northanger Abbey” ~ Catherine, the daughter of a clergyman, is invited by a family friend to visit the famous spa town of Bath with them. While there she meets a dashing young gentleman who soon catches her eye and her heart, however, another bachelor attempts to monopolize her time and keep her away from the attentions of anyone else. Can Catherine ditch the self-centred control freak and be allowed to pursue the man who mystifies her? Austen writes candidly about - whether consciously aware, and deliberately writing, or simply taking them as facts of life - arranged marriage and caste systems of England in particular, Europe in general; things that since have been, falsely, identified exclusively with India, in line with Macaulay policy to break spirit of India.Austen is clear about her contempt for a modicum of behaviour slightly reminiscent of Mary Bennett from her most famous work, Pride And Prejudice.
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