If you’re new to this Substack, one of the things I’m offering subscribers in 2023 is A Year with Jane. We’re reading through Austen’s six novels this year and Northanger Abbey was our read for October.
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To Read or Not to Read
Reading so many gothic novels seems to be Catherine’s downfall. After all, if she hadn’t read books like The Mysteries of Udolpho, she wouldn’t be expecting her love interest’s family home to house morbid secrets or her potential father-in-law to be a murderer. Austen is warning us against reading novels, right? Wrong.
I don’t Austen is doing any such thing. First of all, it would be highly ineffective to write a novel warning readers against reading novels. Why should we trust what a novel says if they’re so bad? But there’s also the fact that Northanger Abbey’s most virtuous character, Henry Tilney, is a great defender of the novel. He reads novels, loves novels, prizes the form of the novel, and has suffered no ill effects from being a great reader of novels. The character who is most dismissive of novels (“They are the stupidest things in creation!”) is John Thorpe who is clearly a fool. So readers of novels=good, haters of novels=bad? Again, Austen is much more nuanced than that.
Thorpe’s sister Isabella who reads many novels is no better than he. She is worse than a fool. She is a deceitful manipulator. Austen is not claiming that readers of novels will all be virtuous. Sadly, we probably all know people who are well-read but have not allowed themselves to be formed by good ideas. They have not cultivated virtue in the process. Instead, I think she is urging us to read carefully. Under a guide like Isabella, Catherine will not learn to read well. But it seems that the reader and the teacher, not the novel, is at fault. Henry Tilney has learned to read well, to read with discernment, and this skill carries over into the way he perceives the world. He is discerning, prudent, and wise.
Do not dismiss the value of the novel, Austen seems to say. But let them be good novels and read carefully. In doing so, you may learn to read the world as well.
I dive into this subject more deeply in my book, Jane Austen’s Genius Guide to Life. You can get a copy from Ave Maria Press (use STEWART20 for 20% off) or from Amazon.
I also have four signed copies that I plan to mail out next week. So if you’re interested in ordering one (or getting a Christmas gift for someone else) you can fill out this quick Google form to reserve your copy.
Northanger Abbey is very different from Austen’s other novels. After finishing the book, how do you think it measures up to her other works? Chime in!
Reading schedule for our next read, Persuasion, coming very soon! This may be my favorite Austen novel (I know I’ve said that before). It is an absolute masterpiece and I can’t wait to discuss it with you.
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Looking forward to discussing Persuasion with you!
Haley
(Editor of Word on Fire Spark, Author, Former Podcaster)
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Such a good point - I also think selecting your novels (and other content) is critical. I’ve been chuckling lately at how many of my extremely smart, thoughtful and well educated friends have Goodreads lists full of (at the risk of being real judgmental) tragedy porn family dramas, historical romance a lá bridgerton, and second tier YA fantasy…don’t get me wrong, I love a guilty pleasure as much as the next person, but to paraphrase Jesus, man cannot live on McDonald’s fries alone…