Stuff I Love: Northanger Abbey

[fourzoas]

Some favorite bits of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey behind the cut tag.



So we've been discussing Northanger Abbey in one of my classes this week, and as I've revisited it in preparation, I was reminded again how many wonderful remarks Henry Tilney, the love interest in the story, makes regarding education and women. These aren't all politically correct, but they're just lovely in that way that Austen is lovely.

• Henry to Catherine, on learning to read: "it is very well worth while to be tormented for two or three years of one's life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it." (Ch. 14, p. 75)


• Henry: "There must be murder; and government cares not how much." (Ch. 14, p. 77)


• Henry to Catherine: "Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much, that they never find it necessary to use more than half." (Ch. 14, p. 79)


• Catherine wished to congratulate him, but knew not what to say, and her eloquence was only in her eyes. From them however the eight parts of speech shone out most expressively, and James could combine them with ease. (Ch. 15, p. 83)


• Henry to Catherine: "The mere habit of learning to love is the thing; and a teachableness of disposition in a young lady is a great blessing. --Has my sister a pleasant mode of instruction?" (Ch. 22, p. 119)