#isabella thorpe

[firawren]

Northanger Abbey text posts

[dimity-lawn]

[bethanydelleman]

Northanger Abbey Readthrough Ch 11

Important context for this chapter! Blaize Castle is a FAKE CASTLE:

known as a "folly". It's basically a very large lawn ornament. It was built in 1766, so John Thorpe is lying through his teeth when he says it's the oldest in the kingdom, it's only about 40 years old by Catherine's time.

I love that Mr. Allen refuses to predict the weather when he's not at home. I love Mrs. Allen's little dig about Catherine not minding dirt (makes me wonder if Catherine has ruined a few cushions in her day). I love poor Catherine sitting at the window counting umbrellas and hoping her walk will happen!

Now, I do wonder that the Tilneys didn't send Catherine a note. It was at least 12:40 when the Thorpes showed up, then they talked, and Catherine sees the Tilneys walking towards her lodgings. It must be 1:00 p.m. by then. These Tilneys are rich, can't they send a servant to say they're coming? Did they really expect Catherine to just wait all day?

Great quote:

she meditated, by turns, on broken promises and broken arches, phaetons and false hangings, Tilneys and trap-doors.

Catherine finally has had enough of Mr. Thorpe:

“If your brother had not got such a d—— beast to drive,” said he soon afterwards, “we might have done it very well. My horse would have trotted to Clifton within the hour, if left to himself, and I have almost broke my arm with pulling him in to that cursed broken-winded jade’s pace. Morland is a fool for not keeping a horse and gig of his own.” “No, he is not,” said Catherine warmly, “for I am sure he could not afford it.” “And why cannot he afford it?” “Because he has not money enough.” “And whose fault is that?” “Nobody’s, that I know of.” Thorpe then said something in the loud, incoherent way to which he had often recourse, about its being a d—— thing to be miserly; and that if people who rolled in money could not afford things, he did not know who could, which Catherine did not even endeavour to understand. Disappointed of what was to have been the consolation for her first disappointment, she was less and less disposed either to be agreeable herself or to find her companion so; and they returned to Pulteney Street without her speaking twenty words.

Now of course, we know with hindsight that John has decided (for some reason) that James is very rich, so he doesn't understand why James doesn't keep a carriage. Now Catherine knows that her family isn't super wealthy, so I'm sure all of this talk is just incomprehensible to her. But who in their right mind could understand John Thorpe...

Poor Catherine gets no country walk, no Blaize Castle, and no Tilneys. Her day is ruined and she is consighed to cry forever on a pillow strewn with thorns... (maybe Marianne would, but not our girl Catherine)

It also seems that Catherine is beginning to notice that Isabella Thorpe isn't exactly the great friend she appeared to be at first:

Catherine could almost have accused Isabella of being wanting in tenderness towards herself and her sorrows, so very little did they appear to dwell on her mind, and so very inadequate was the comfort she offered.

I just find this whole chapter so painful, it is the epitome of FOMO, instead of hiking with her crush and his sister, she is forced to endure John Freaking Thorpe and not even have the added bonus of a castle!

The relationship of Catherine and the Tilneys is also full of these small misunderstandings and interpretations of propriety (we will see more next chapter). Miss Tilney feeling for a card and not leaving one can be seen as an indication that she wants to break off the acquaintance, or she may just have had no card. Now since she was planning on a country walk, no card is plausible, but poor Catherine is very worried that the Tilneys were insulted by her behaviour.

As a last note, this man is the worst:

(and so well cast in 2007!)

[elenion-et-al]

Northanger Abbey thoughts and summary

Chapter 7

Here we meet John Thorpe... I do not like John Thorpe.

The whole time I was reading the chapter, my eyebrows were furrowed and I realised I had a look of disdain.

This man is the very kind I would like to keep away from at all cost.

Okay, first of all, he had zero care for his horse! Poor horse. Deserved better life than that. Second, we was so quick to dismiss Catherine's interest in novels. Wait, he didn't just dismiss it. He insulted them and thought so lowly of it. Excuse me?!?!?!

Ooooh I was seething reading this chapter. I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO HIS NEXT APPEARANCE.

Bring back Henry 🥲

[miriel-therindes]

good morning to: novel readers with vivid imaginations, sassy men who know about muslins, eleanor tilney, horrible girls who cheated on their fiance because he wasn't rich enough, dumb brothers who aren't entirely horrible, dead mothers, and everyone in Bath except for Mr. Th*rpe.

[showmethesneer]

Isabella Thorpe planning for Catherine to marry John while planning to marry James herself, then turning her attention to Captain Tilney when she realizes Catherine has her heart set on Henry:

[tales-from-the-abbey]

Your favorite Northanger Abbey or S&S OT3 isn't there ? Tell me and I'll make a poll with them later

[dimity-lawn]

[bethanydelleman]

Northanger Abbey Readthrough Ch 25

Catherine might have missed like 99% of Henry Tilney's flirting, but she has an inkling it has happened, maybe, "He had—she thought he had, once or twice before this fatal morning, shown something like affection for her."

Which is why I love this meme so much:

Again, Catherine touches upon Marianne Dashwood behaviour but she just can't really commit, "But now—in short, she made herself as miserable as possible for about half an hour, went down when the clock struck five, with a broken heart, and could scarcely give an intelligible answer to Eleanor’s inquiry if she was well." However, by the end of the evening and with Henry being kinder than ever, she has recovered. she had nothing to do but to forgive herself and be happier than ever; and the lenient hand of time did much for her by insensible gradations in the course of another day. She does indeed bounce back quickly!

Catherine reflects that in England at least, the type of villains described by Mrs. Radcliff must not exist. She doesn't go so far as to pardon France and Switzerland from containing such evil, but she's pretty sure about her own country. She also believes that while Henry and Eleanor may not be perfect (never!), she's certain that General Tilney has some "specks" in his character. Well you've come a long way girl, we won't ask for more just yet.

Murder was not tolerated, servants were not slaves, and neither poison nor sleeping potions to be procured, like rhubarb, from every druggist.

Quick, someone tell Shakespeare!

Now Catherine's thoughts return to Bath, but she has no news. Her faithful friend has proved unfaithful again: But Isabella had promised and promised again; and when she promised a thing, she was so scrupulous in performing it! Oh Catherine...

Not as bad as her brother though! Poor Thorpe is in town: I dread the sight of him; his honest heart would feel so much. Honest heart! That man doesn't have an honest cell in his entire body! I would have more hope for James if we knew he finally figured out John, but the only hint we have is this: the failure of a very recent endeavour to accomplish a reconciliation between Morland and Isabella. So James and John met again and John tried to get them back together, but whether James rejected both siblings or just one is unknown.

I really feel for Catherine here, she has to sit through breakfast trying not to cry, then cannot return to her room because it is being cleaned (bedrooms in this era were mostly for dressing and sleeping, so she wouldn't be expected to use her room again until 4pm*), tries the drawing room only to discover the Tilney siblings, but then they kindly leave her to herself. Catherine needs another half hour (her magical sad-feeling time) before she can face them.

This line from Catherine is so very Jane Bennet:

"Could you have believed there had been such inconstancy and fickleness, and everything that is bad in the world?”

What a stroke was this for poor Jane, who would willingly have gone through the world without believing that so much wickedness existed in the whole race of mankind as was here collected in one individual! -Pride & Prejudice, of Wickham

The poor girls, having their eyes opened to the wickedness of the world.

Then this part:

This post by Fira Wren playing in my head. His kids know the General is full of it. Eleanor is surprised her older brother has fallen in love, since it seems he never has been before, which again has Henry Crawford vibes.

No, not very. I do not believe Isabella has any fortune at all: but that will not signify in your family. Your father is so very liberal! He told me the other day that he only valued money as it allowed him to promote the happiness of his children.” The brother and sister looked at each other.

Now the reason that Isabella Thorpe would lose in a battle to the death against Lucy Steele and Lady Susan is that she didn't keep her first man secure until she had the next engagement entirely locked down. Rookie movie Izzy! I have too good an opinion of Miss Thorpe’s prudence to suppose that she would part with one gentleman before the other was secured. Isabella just could not manage two men at once.

I love this interaction:

This line from Catherine too, "I never was so deceived in anyone’s character in my life before.” and Henry's response: “Among all the great variety that you have known and studied.” has so much in common with this interaction in Pride & Prejudice:

“But perhaps,” observed Catherine, “though she has behaved so ill by our family, she may behave better by yours. Now she has really got the man she likes, she may be constant.” “Indeed I am afraid she will,” replied Henry; “I am afraid she will be very constant, unless a baronet should come in her way; that is Frederick’s only chance. I will get the Bath paper, and look over the arrivals.”

“I did not know before,” continued Bingley, immediately, “that you were a studier of character. It must be an amusing study.” “Yes; but intricate characters are the most amusing. They have at least that advantage.” “The country,” said Darcy, “can in general supply but few subjects for such a study. In a country neighbourhood you move in a very confined and unvarying society.” “But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.”

Henry also manages to tip us off about his intentions to marry Catherine right under Catherine's oblivious nose!

"Prepare for your sister-in-law, Eleanor, and such a sister-in-law as you must delight in! Open, candid, artless, guileless, with affections strong but simple, forming no pretensions, and knowing no disguise.”

“Such a sister-in-law, Henry, I should delight in,” said Eleanor with a smile.

Catherine also realizes that she feels much less sad about losing Isabella than she thought she would, which Henry tells her to think about. The falseness of Isabella's friendship is dawning on Catherine, perhaps now just unconsciously.

*Quote illuminating this point from Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, spoke by a character who would have been young during the Regency era: 'No, no, Cromer: bedrooms are for sleeping in, and sitting-rooms are for sitting in. Keep everything to its right purpose, and don't try and delude me into nonsense.' Why, my mother would have given us a fine scolding if she had ever caught us in our bedrooms in the daytime. We kept our out-door things in a closet downstairs; and there was a very tidy place for washing our hands, which is as much as one wants in the daytime.

[manishaaaaa]

"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature. My attachments are always excessively strong." - says the most hypocrite girl with no intention of ever showing love to those who cannot profit her financially -

I love Jane Austen's characters smh

[tooraunchy]

Dear Mr. Thrice-Knightley, I wish to inform you that I overheard your idle gossip at the ball last weekend and feel obliged to tell you two things: number one is that my dancing, contrary to what you think, is in fact very elegant indeed, and number two is that the mole you may have noticed on my exceedingly milky left breast is one which you shall never have the good fortune to kiss. That pleasure shall be reserved for one possessed of more than a piddly five hundred pounds a year. Yours never, Isabella Thorpe

It’s been said before but it bears repeating that Jane Austen’s characters really are amazingly contemporary.