“It is so odd to me, that you should never have read Udolpho before;" - Northanger Abbey Chapter 6.
That time I read Udolfo and had thoughts. Have you read any of Isabella's list of books?
#Pemberlittens #TalkTilneyToMe
#JaneAustenThenAndNow
Ch.6
Oh, Isabella - the all too common manipulative attention-seeking Mean Girl where everything she says is calibrated for her audience to provide her with the correct reaction (usually some sort of fawning - oh Isabella, you are just too good!)
Then Catherine is forced to report on the movements of two young men whose staring was "bothering" Isabella before they essentially chase them down the street to capture their attention. Shades of Lydia!
This chapter is a true classic! Jane breaks the fourth wall pretty consistently in Northanger, but never with so much fervor as in her absolute harangue about novels. She's not wrong, though, and novels written for women are still seen as "less than". Screw that bullshit, and brava to Jane for her impassioned defense and for making her heroines novel-readers! Catherine and Isabella reading together on rainy days should be an inspiration to us all!
Ch.5
Isabella and Catherine are soon inseparable - when they cannot be out scouting for Tilney, they stay in and read novels.
But the chapter is sidetracked by a spirited (and lengthy) preemptive defense of novels by the author/narrator against those that essentially call them trashy.
"If the heroine of one novel be not patronized by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard?"
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#JaneAustenThenandNow
Ch.4
Catherine is super-excited to see Tilney again, but nope. Just the usual Mrs. Allen wishing she had acquaintance and sighing loudly without doing anything about it. But wait! An old schoolmate appears to drone on endlessly bragging about her children and their accomplishments (even the narrator digs at how she never shuts up...)
The eldest daughter, Isabella, basically makes a pet of Catherine and enjoys being admired by her new friend.
.Henry Tilney is still nowhere to be found. But Catherine has made a friend! And gasp we're reading novels! 😱📖📚
#PemberLittens #TalkTilneyToMe
#JaneAustenThenAndNow
they were still resolute in meeting in defiance of wet and dirt, and shut themselves up, to read novels together. Yes, novels; - for I will not adapt that ungenerous and impolitic custom so common with novel writers, of degrading by their contemptuous censure the very performances, to the number of which they are themselves adding
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I'm starting #HyggeHourReadathon early with my new book. It's time to relax. 📚☕️
Are you joining in? What are you reading?
@Chrissyreadit @TheBookHippie
One for #Pemberlittens #Janeadjacent @Crinoline_Laphroaig and #Hashtagbrigade @BarkingMadRead 🪶
Catherine hopes to meet Mr. Tilney again but suddenly he's nowhere to be found?! She's not disappointed for long, though, because an old acquaintance of Mrs. Allen's comes over to introduce herself and her beautiful daughter Isabella (and there's other daughters, too, but nobody cares). Catherine is delighted to have a friend in Bath, and I'm delighted by the last paragraph where the author snarkily relays how Mrs. Thorpe talks too damn much. 😆
"With more than usual eagerness did Catherine hasten to the Pump-room the next day, secure within herself of seeing Mr. Tilney there before the morning were over, and ready to meet him with a smile:—but no smile was demanded—Mr. Tilney did not appear."
Where oh where can Henry Tilney be? ?
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#JaneAustenThenAndNow
