We now come to the posthumously published works of Austen. Jane Austen started writing Northanger Abbey when she was much younger, but it, and Persuasion, were not released until after his death. Northanger Abbey, which first appeared in 1817, is the story of a naive 17-year-old girl as she travels to Bath and exposes herself to society and culture. Perhaps I like it because Jane's writing style is yet unaffected by age and maturity, or because I myself am the age of the heroine. I believe that Austen had sound morals, but she also does not shy away from writing novels for the hopeless romantic. Her heroines are allowed their follies, but when they are negative follies, she does expose them to censure.
I also love the localities of the novel. The home of Catherine Morland, the heroine, is in Fullerton, Wiltshire. When I lived in England, I was a Wiltshire local. Salisbury, where Mrs Allen goes shopping, is but eight miles from Salisbury. My mother did most of her shopping in Salisbury, and so did I. I also adore Bath, because that is also not too far from Salisbury. I returned to both these places when I travelled to England this past May.
This is from the Pump Rooms and the Assembly Rooms. They are two locations that appear several times in the novel. I had tea in the Pump Room, as a little birthday present from my mommy! In the book, Catherine and Isabella go to church, and, "After staying long enough in the Pump-room to discover that the crowd was insupportable, and that there was not a genteel face to be seen, which everybody discovers every Sunday throughout the season, they hastened away to the Crescent." (Chapter 5)
Speaking of the Crescent, down below is the shot that I took of it. This was my first stop in Bath. It took a while to get a good shot, because it is large, and you have to back up rather far for the whole Crescent to fit in the viewfinder. By the time it fit in the viewfinder of my camera, I was standing in a bush at the far side of the park, hence the tree branch in the upper left corner. Then, just as I was about to click the picture, a large group of Japanese tourists walked right through the shot. I had to wait several minutes for them to dissipate. It had been early morning, so no one else was in the park; but wham! as soon as Julia wants to snap a photo, bring in the tourists!
I am enjoying the first fun, free-spirited, and humourous chapters of Northanger Abbey. As far as the entire project is concerned, the END is in sight.
Dad and I watched Persuasion on Friday night, perhaps for the first time since we returned to Bath. I was amazed at how many places in the film I recognized. Shall we go back? Mom
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