I have started to read Northanger Abbey at the urging of friends and well-wishers and already I want to slap Isabella Thorpe silly.
The style of the novel overall is somewhat arch and the narrator is pretty much sitting behind us, chin on shoulder, pointing out how unlike the gothic novels of the day this novel is. Since I haven’t read any of the works eagerly devoured by Misses Thorpe and Morland in a manner that amusingly foreshadows the mania surrounding Harry Potter and The Twilight “saga”, I’m not in a position to fully appreciate the juxtaposition. I do, however, admit that there is some humour to prosaic nature of the plot overall (so far); �an antidote to the outlandish plots of Udolpho and The Monk (judging by what I have read on the oracular wikipedia). The novel having been written at a time when reading novels was not an altogether desirable past time for �young ladies.
It has been a while since I’ve read any Austen so my brain isn’t really in the mode for 18th/19th century prose style; a slightly rambling sentence structure and different idiomatic style. However, I shall press on.
Lindsay finished NA and said it was hysterical,but she is a Gothic kind of girl. Personally, I get 100 pages in and get bored to tears though at one point I shall finish it soon-ish for the Austen challenge. Right now I’m fairly overly Austenfied and am anxiously awaiting the new Pratchett (out in a few weeks!) and ooh! New Jasper Fforde (“One of our Thursdays is Missing”) out in the US in March!
Hurray, I agree with Lindsay! I love this book, I found it so funny and intelligent. But I do agree with Alice that you can click in and out of Jane Austen mode. If you’re not in the mood for her, her sentences can be long and winding.