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anghraineI am a bad Northanger Abbey fan, and have never read this book. I hear it's long, dull and melodramatic and ... never got around to it. But now it's been assigned for a class, so I'm wading through it. If anybody wants to read along, feel free!
Chapter One
At one point in NA, Catherine waxes eloquent on the south of France - not the actual south of France, which she naturally has never seen, but the version she knows care of Mrs Radcliffe. That would be this:
From its windows were seen the pastoral landscapes of Guienne and Gascony stretching along the river, gay with luxuriant woods and vine, and plantations of olives. To the south, the view was bounded by the majestic Pyrenees, whose summits, veiled in clouds, or exhibiting awful forms, seen, and lost again, as the partial vapours rolled along, were sometimes barren, and gleamed through the blue tinge of air, and sometimes frowned with forests of gloomy pine, that swept downward to their base. These tremendous precipices were contrasted by the soft green of the pastures and woods that hung upon their skirts; among whose flocks, and herds, and simple cottages, the eye, after having scaled the cliffs above, delighted to repose.
Is she trying to sell it? There's a lot more of this, but that gets the idea across.
So, M. St Aubert is this really stellar guy who seems to have been Jane Bennet in his youth, was sadly disillusioned by...something, and has now retired to live in the pastoral simplicity of his chateau (see above). He's the heir to a younger branch of some powerful family, was supposed to marry for money but didn't, so tragically he can only live in ... this slice of paradise? And now his life is divided between being super-happy with his wife, doting on his daughter, reading awesome books and admiring nature (usually with the daughter, Emily). Okay!
Cue Emily, who just naturally likes the "elegant arts," which aren't exactly defined but appear to involve books, drawings, musical instruments, birds, and plants (?), and she's naturally good at them, and naturally she has a good education too. Then more descriptions - oh no, St Aubert's two sons just died, leaving only Emily. So he starts working on her mind, because even though she's lovely and affectionate and everything wonderful, she has some sort of charming "susceptibility" that he feels the need to combat. There's actually a rather cool line about how St Aubert is too sensible to prefer charm to virtue and wants her to be strong-minded instead.
So! She ends up being taught: the danger of first impressions (*snerk*), to reject her impulses, to acquire self-command and dignity, SCIENCE!, Latin, and English (oh right, they're French [or "French"]). Nice.
Back to nature, which lifts her thoughts to the GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. Her caps. Also, she sings. This moves somebody tovandalize their property write a sonnet to her on the wainscot. In pencil! Emily, however, is too awesome to be carried away by this and so busy that she basically forgets all about it. Then St Aubert gets sick, and his wife and Emily look after him until he gets better, but then Madame St Aubert gets sick.
And he wanders off to play on Emily's lute because his is too noble a soul for the torture and destruction that is fishing. And then they're all walking together on another day and he sends Emily off to fetch her lute, but she hears somebody playing it and when she arrives, there's (*gasp*) more poetry. Also, somebody has stolen her mother's bracelet, which had a picture of her in it. Emily puts all this together and is understandably freaked out.
Enter Mme St Aubert's ambitious brother and frivolous Italian wife, M. and Mme. Quesnel. Quesnel, who bought St Aubert's family estate, immediately takes it upon himself to torture St Aubert by talking about all the horrible changes he's going to make, down to chopping down the trees. Then they go away, and there's more nature stuff, and Emily makes up a poem about fairies and glow-worms. Then they go home, and alas, Mme St Aubert is getting worse. Turns out she caught a fever from him. He...foresees?...er, has a presentiment that she's going to die, and hides it from her and Emily. But she realizes it after a bit, and so they all sit around and talk about religion while she dies.
Chapter Two
Emily is extremely upset and sobs her heart out, and after awhile her father tells her to buck up. She does, sort of. Some people come to condole, including a kind of cool naturalist friend of St Aubert's, and St Aubert's sister. And they have to deal with the Quesnels. She's still a bit depressed, so St Aubert thinks it will do some to get out of the house and they go to Epourville, Quesnel's estate (and formerly St Aubert's). It's been redecorated, badly.
The Quesnels briefly sympathize with them and then appear to have forgotten that they even had a sister. St Aubert and Emily are still fairly stiff and Quesnel finds them inexplicably depressing. Die in a fire, Quesnel. Then the Quesnels explain that they're having a party, and their sister just dying shouldn't interfere with things that are really important. St Aubert puts up with it because he thinks Emily might need to be on good terms with her uncle someday. He's a veritable Palpatine. Only not evil.
There are two Italian men among the guests - one is a handsome, forty-something Italian named Montoni, who is apparently super-villainous (according to NA - he hasn't done anything awful yet). The other is his thirty-year-old friend, Cavigni. Also, St Aubert's sister, Mme Cheron, shows up too and thinks St Aubert looks just awful. Emily is promptly terrified. Montoni is a pleasant conversationalist (of course he's evil!) and talks about Italian politics, which seem to be very complicated, and ... French fashion! Which apparently he is very knowledgeable about.
... bless you, Henry Tilney, for not being evil.
St Aubert has some secret business with Quesnel, and is extremely depressed as they drive home, partly over the unknown secret thing. So's Emily, sans the secret. She gets better over time, but St Aubert starts to decline. The doctor tells him he needs to travel, so they prepare for the trip. The night before they leave, Emily goes looking for him and finds him holed up in a closet (?), reading papers with "serious interest" - which seems to involve a lot of sobbing. Emily feels that leaving him alone is awful but getting involved would also be awful, so clearly the best thing to do is just stand there and watch him.
She assumes the papers belonged to her mother, though I doubt it, and with a horrified look St Aubert begins to pray. The plot thickens! Then he goes back to the papers, and stops to take a picture out of a case. It's a lady, but not her mother, and St Aubert kisses it and sighs convulsively. It finally occurs to Emily that it's actually kind of inappropriate to be watching him, so she goes to bed.
Chapter Three
So, they travel. Travel and travel and travel. Everything is pretty and picturesque, and I don't need to detail it (but Radcliffe does, at length). St Aubert is still sad and occasionally starts crying out of nowhere, but Emily is a kind soul and sympathizes.
On their way to a little hamlet, they meet a hunter who gives them directions and, upon being invited, gladly escorts them the rest of the way. He explains that he's not so much hunting as wandering around with his dogs for company. Aww. The hamlet turns out to be awful, so the stranger offers his comfier bed to poor St Aubert, and says he and his landlady will figure something out for Emily. St Aubert is surprised that the stranger is "so deficient in gallantry" as to offer his bed to a frail older man rather than a beautiful young woman. Huh? Anyway, Emily is pleased by it.
The stranger's name turns out to be ... Valancourt! Aha, I know this name too. Enter our hero! He does seem very heroic. I bet he wrote the creepy poetry too.
Valancourt's cottage turns out to be very nice, and both the beds go to the St Auberts. He wins St Aubert over with his "manly frankness, simplicity, and keen susceptibility to the grandeur of nature." Okay. Then there's a brief disagreement because the housekeeper lady won't let the muleteer (who St Aubert and Emily came with) bring his mules into the room her sons are sleeping in. This seems perfectly reasonable to me, but the muleteer throws a screaming fit and Valancourt finally settles it by giving his room to the sons, the sons' room to the mules and muleteer, and sleeping on a bench himself. Then he impresses St Aubert still further by leaving Homer, Horace and Petrarch in his room.
Hm. Well, we have our characters, and I suppose things will pick up with St Aubert's inevitable tragic death.
Chapter One
At one point in NA, Catherine waxes eloquent on the south of France - not the actual south of France, which she naturally has never seen, but the version she knows care of Mrs Radcliffe. That would be this:
From its windows were seen the pastoral landscapes of Guienne and Gascony stretching along the river, gay with luxuriant woods and vine, and plantations of olives. To the south, the view was bounded by the majestic Pyrenees, whose summits, veiled in clouds, or exhibiting awful forms, seen, and lost again, as the partial vapours rolled along, were sometimes barren, and gleamed through the blue tinge of air, and sometimes frowned with forests of gloomy pine, that swept downward to their base. These tremendous precipices were contrasted by the soft green of the pastures and woods that hung upon their skirts; among whose flocks, and herds, and simple cottages, the eye, after having scaled the cliffs above, delighted to repose.
Is she trying to sell it? There's a lot more of this, but that gets the idea across.
So, M. St Aubert is this really stellar guy who seems to have been Jane Bennet in his youth, was sadly disillusioned by...something, and has now retired to live in the pastoral simplicity of his chateau (see above). He's the heir to a younger branch of some powerful family, was supposed to marry for money but didn't, so tragically he can only live in ... this slice of paradise? And now his life is divided between being super-happy with his wife, doting on his daughter, reading awesome books and admiring nature (usually with the daughter, Emily). Okay!
Cue Emily, who just naturally likes the "elegant arts," which aren't exactly defined but appear to involve books, drawings, musical instruments, birds, and plants (?), and she's naturally good at them, and naturally she has a good education too. Then more descriptions - oh no, St Aubert's two sons just died, leaving only Emily. So he starts working on her mind, because even though she's lovely and affectionate and everything wonderful, she has some sort of charming "susceptibility" that he feels the need to combat. There's actually a rather cool line about how St Aubert is too sensible to prefer charm to virtue and wants her to be strong-minded instead.
So! She ends up being taught: the danger of first impressions (*snerk*), to reject her impulses, to acquire self-command and dignity, SCIENCE!, Latin, and English (oh right, they're French [or "French"]). Nice.
Back to nature, which lifts her thoughts to the GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. Her caps. Also, she sings. This moves somebody to
And he wanders off to play on Emily's lute because his is too noble a soul for the torture and destruction that is fishing. And then they're all walking together on another day and he sends Emily off to fetch her lute, but she hears somebody playing it and when she arrives, there's (*gasp*) more poetry. Also, somebody has stolen her mother's bracelet, which had a picture of her in it. Emily puts all this together and is understandably freaked out.
Enter Mme St Aubert's ambitious brother and frivolous Italian wife, M. and Mme. Quesnel. Quesnel, who bought St Aubert's family estate, immediately takes it upon himself to torture St Aubert by talking about all the horrible changes he's going to make, down to chopping down the trees. Then they go away, and there's more nature stuff, and Emily makes up a poem about fairies and glow-worms. Then they go home, and alas, Mme St Aubert is getting worse. Turns out she caught a fever from him. He...foresees?...er, has a presentiment that she's going to die, and hides it from her and Emily. But she realizes it after a bit, and so they all sit around and talk about religion while she dies.
Chapter Two
Emily is extremely upset and sobs her heart out, and after awhile her father tells her to buck up. She does, sort of. Some people come to condole, including a kind of cool naturalist friend of St Aubert's, and St Aubert's sister. And they have to deal with the Quesnels. She's still a bit depressed, so St Aubert thinks it will do some to get out of the house and they go to Epourville, Quesnel's estate (and formerly St Aubert's). It's been redecorated, badly.
The Quesnels briefly sympathize with them and then appear to have forgotten that they even had a sister. St Aubert and Emily are still fairly stiff and Quesnel finds them inexplicably depressing. Die in a fire, Quesnel. Then the Quesnels explain that they're having a party, and their sister just dying shouldn't interfere with things that are really important. St Aubert puts up with it because he thinks Emily might need to be on good terms with her uncle someday. He's a veritable Palpatine. Only not evil.
There are two Italian men among the guests - one is a handsome, forty-something Italian named Montoni, who is apparently super-villainous (according to NA - he hasn't done anything awful yet). The other is his thirty-year-old friend, Cavigni. Also, St Aubert's sister, Mme Cheron, shows up too and thinks St Aubert looks just awful. Emily is promptly terrified. Montoni is a pleasant conversationalist (of course he's evil!) and talks about Italian politics, which seem to be very complicated, and ... French fashion! Which apparently he is very knowledgeable about.
... bless you, Henry Tilney, for not being evil.
St Aubert has some secret business with Quesnel, and is extremely depressed as they drive home, partly over the unknown secret thing. So's Emily, sans the secret. She gets better over time, but St Aubert starts to decline. The doctor tells him he needs to travel, so they prepare for the trip. The night before they leave, Emily goes looking for him and finds him holed up in a closet (?), reading papers with "serious interest" - which seems to involve a lot of sobbing. Emily feels that leaving him alone is awful but getting involved would also be awful, so clearly the best thing to do is just stand there and watch him.
She assumes the papers belonged to her mother, though I doubt it, and with a horrified look St Aubert begins to pray. The plot thickens! Then he goes back to the papers, and stops to take a picture out of a case. It's a lady, but not her mother, and St Aubert kisses it and sighs convulsively. It finally occurs to Emily that it's actually kind of inappropriate to be watching him, so she goes to bed.
Chapter Three
So, they travel. Travel and travel and travel. Everything is pretty and picturesque, and I don't need to detail it (but Radcliffe does, at length). St Aubert is still sad and occasionally starts crying out of nowhere, but Emily is a kind soul and sympathizes.
On their way to a little hamlet, they meet a hunter who gives them directions and, upon being invited, gladly escorts them the rest of the way. He explains that he's not so much hunting as wandering around with his dogs for company. Aww. The hamlet turns out to be awful, so the stranger offers his comfier bed to poor St Aubert, and says he and his landlady will figure something out for Emily. St Aubert is surprised that the stranger is "so deficient in gallantry" as to offer his bed to a frail older man rather than a beautiful young woman. Huh? Anyway, Emily is pleased by it.
The stranger's name turns out to be ... Valancourt! Aha, I know this name too. Enter our hero! He does seem very heroic. I bet he wrote the creepy poetry too.
Valancourt's cottage turns out to be very nice, and both the beds go to the St Auberts. He wins St Aubert over with his "manly frankness, simplicity, and keen susceptibility to the grandeur of nature." Okay. Then there's a brief disagreement because the housekeeper lady won't let the muleteer (who St Aubert and Emily came with) bring his mules into the room her sons are sleeping in. This seems perfectly reasonable to me, but the muleteer throws a screaming fit and Valancourt finally settles it by giving his room to the sons, the sons' room to the mules and muleteer, and sleeping on a bench himself. Then he impresses St Aubert still further by leaving Homer, Horace and Petrarch in his room.
Hm. Well, we have our characters, and I suppose things will pick up with St Aubert's inevitable tragic death.