#john thorpe

[bethanydelleman]

The perfect text quote for John Thorpe doesn't ex-

[firawren]

Anything is possible when you're the heroine of a novel!

(Here's the original ad, you know you want to watch it again)

[thoumpingground]

Okay, obviously I get why Emma gets to be the resident Disaster Matchmaker TM, but really John Thorpe gives her several runs for her money. He beats her in numbers of matches, execution, and production value accidentaly. Emma only managed to get Harriet's heart broken - twice. Thorpe's got it down to the details: he got Cathy the guy and a swoon worthy proposal. Cause if left to his own devices, Henry would have put together something sweet and heartfelt but simple, and Cathy would have been very happy of course, but she clearly doesn't mind a little bit of ✨romance✨. Thanks to Thorpe, she gets to brag forever that her husband loved her so much he bore being disowned and rode 70 miles on a horse to propose against his father's will.

Thorpe might be shooting in the dark, and aiming for the complete opposite goal, but d-mn it, he gets results, and I think he deserves to be the Austen Extended Universe Hipercompetent Matchmaking Menace TM. Not the least because, unlike Emma and every other Austen romantic rival, he has nothing else going for him.

[phireads]

About a third of the way through Northanger Abbey and can John Thorpe just stop??? I actually despise him

[hotjaneaustenmenpoll]

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Read Northanger Abbey the other day and it is funny on so many levels.

First - imagine, 200 years later, if Twilight has fallen into obscurity but a book satirizing Twilight is still well-known and the source of most of some people’s knowledge of the genre. (Note: Should I read The Mysteries of Udolpho, just out of curiosity?)

Second - I don’t favour modern retellings of Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice because the plot and characterizations are so fundamentally connected to the time period - to the nature of marriage as an economic arrangement and the lack of options for gentlewomen to earn an independent living - that removing that element to focus just on the romance cuts out something central to the book. (Emma is independently wealthy, which is why a modern ‘retelling’ of the book like Clueless works better than for P&P or S&S.)

Northanger Abbey? Is perfect for a modern retelling. A teenage girl goes on a summer vacation, meets a new bestie, gets a crush, dives into Twilight, becomes convinced on the most flimsy of evidence that her new crush’s family are vampires. The exact nature of General Tilney’s misunderstanding about her can be finessed, and she and Henry don’t marry at the end they just start dating, but everything else works, down to the small details! Deciding which friends you want to hang out with, keeping your commitments to people, the pain of finding out that someone you trusted isn’t trustworthy! Henry Tilney going on a tear about the misuse of ‘literally’ or ‘like’! The main stories and conflicts of the novel fit easily into the present day.

Third - yes, Catherine’s Gothic assumptions and ideas are very funny, but General Tilney makes assumptions that are nearly as ridiculous about her, on just as little evidence, and with the benefit of far more life experience! He decides she’s madly wealthy and assiduously seeks to attract her for his son on the word of one guy - one fratbro no less, that’s not even an anachronism, John Thorpe is a fratbro - and then, when the same guy changes his story to ‘no, she’s practically destitute’, the general, instead of considering that maybe this dude is an unreliable source, immediately takes it as truth instead. Catherine’s credulity is driven by fantasy novels, General Tilney’s by worldliness, but they contrast each other very well!

[dimity-lawn]

[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 🥲

[bethanydelleman]

If each protagonist was allowed to stab someone, just once, who would it be?

Oh man this is so exciting and I love this question!

So first of all, I really doubt any of Jane Austen's heroines would stab anyone, it doesn't really fit into their personalities. So let's say in English society everyone carries a small knife with a seal and they can choose to stab one person, ONCE in their whole life and that's it, no penalties. Then your knife is taken away.

Elizabeth Bennet, in the midst of Darcy insulting her family while resting his hand on the mantlepiece, stabs him through the hand. She calls him a sorry excuse for a gentleman while he is trying to get the knife out. During the end of the Collins proposal, Elizabeth did motion towards her knife, which is when Collins finally took the hint that she wasn't interested. Later, she deeply regrets not saving the knife for Wickham.

Jane Bennet never stabbed anyone in the whole course of her life and was buried with her knife never unsealed.

Anne Elliot never thought she would use her knife, but when Mr. Elliot came in and tried to flirt with her again after she had learned the horrible truth of his character, she couldn't help herself. She stabbed him in the leg. The truth of his intentions came out far sooner than expected.

Elinor Dashwood never even wore her knife, everyone felt safe around her. However, they did not realize that she had hidden it inside John's favourite easy chair at Norland and it gave him a very irritating poke every time he sat down. The chair had been used by Elinor's father and when it became clear that John did not mean to honour his deathbed promise to his father, Elinor acted.

Marianne Dashwood stabbed Willoughby when he snubbed her at the party in a wild passion.

Catherine Morland's family were always against knives, being a plain-spoken and honest sort of folk. However, Mrs. Morland thought it best to entrust one to Catherine before she went out in the world. Catherine got spooked and nearly stabbed a servant on the way to Mrs. Tilney's room. She was so embarrassed she hid the knife away and never mentioned it again.

Lady Susan has used her knife several times and then refashioned the seal. She's a cheater. She stabbed Reginald for believing the truth about her once he found out. How disloyal!

Emma Woodhouse stabbed Mr. John Knightley early in their relationship after a perceived slight to Isabella. Their relationship recovered.

Fanny Price was always too grateful to justly wield her knife against Mrs. Norris or the Bertrams. However, after Henry Crawford and Maria eloped, she sent the seal of her knife to Henry, a life-long warning that if he crossed her path again the knife was intended for him. He fastidiously avoided her for the rest of his days.

Bonus: John Thorpe has been stabbed 26 times by various women, friends, and fathers of women. He has learned absolutely nothing from these experiences. Catherine might have stabbed him, but she felt like it would be pointless.

[firawren]

Northanger Abbey text posts

[sheliesshattered]

my bad habit of mixing up John Thornton (North And South) and John Thorpe (Northanger Abbey) is going to end in tragedy one of these days

[autumnrose11]

Liveblogging on Chapter 7 of Northanger Abbey.

JOHN THORPE SEEMS LIKE A TWAT. I DO NOT CARE FOR HIM.

He talks too much and for too long. He got the gig for fifty guineas and goes on and on about it. How absolutely riveting.

Seems inconsiderate towards his horse. News flash, JT: 23 miles isn’t a short distance.  “Rest! he has only come three-and-twenty miles today; all nonsense; nothing ruins horses so much as rest; nothing knocks them up so soon. No no; I shall exercise mine at the average of four hours every day while I am here.” I feel very sorry for the horse.

He bashes Camilla simply because the authoress married a French emigrant. What an astute book critic. Gave me very bad vibes there.

He pissed me off when he commented on women’s looks.  “Her companion's discourse now sunk from its hitherto animated pitch, to nothing more than a short decisive sentence of praise or condemnation on the face of every woman they met.” He strikes me as the type to objectify/sexualise young women and thinks he is entitled to make derogatory remarks on their physical appearances. Nobody asked for your opinion, dude.

He pissed me off even further when he was of the opinion that  “Novels are all so full of nonsense and stuff” and implied he had better things to do. Boooooo!

Absolutely zero respect for his mother and his sisters (and I think women in general).  “"Ah, mother! how do you do?" said he, giving her a hearty shake of the hand: '"where did you get that quiz of a hat, it makes you look like an old witch.” And also....  “On his two younger sisters he then bestowed an equal portion of his fraternal tenderness, for he asked each of them how they did, and observed that they both looked very ugly.” WHAT. THE. HELL. What is it with him dissing their looks the second he sees them?!? If that’s how he speaks to his mother and sisters, God help the poor girl who has the misfortune of becoming his wife.

Catherine, please DO NOT GO for any carriage rides with this guy. Nope. Stay away.

So those are my thoughts on Chapter 7 :) Still loving NA and Catherine!!!

[dimity-lawn]