Northanger Abbey- Jane Austen

This was my first books on tape experience and I must say I loved it. I love to read books and so having a good book occupying my thoughts as rush hour traffic inches its way forward helps the travels become so much more bearable.

Catherine is the heroine of this tale. The story follows her travel to Bath with her god parents the Allens. At first she feels lonely and unaccompanied by friends but overtime she meets various people and potential suitors. One particular suitor and his lovely sister take to her as much as she takes to them and she is then at the conclusion of her time at Bath invited to join them at their home in Northanger Abbey where the tension of the story truly unfolds.

This was a really funy Austen book where she pokes fun at the society of the day and the gothic novels which were prominent in that day and age. I love how she steps out at times and pokes fun at her dramatic gestures and prose in the book but I also loved that though in many ways satire the story actually had heart as well.

There is a scene in this book where I really remember Atonement and it gives Atonement a whole different perspective to me. Catherine loves Gothic novels with huge dramatic overtones and exxagerated conclusions. Due to her books and the fantasies, at Northanger Abbey her overactive imagination conjures up dramatic troubling inference after another based on things that normal people would not read into as she had. There is a scene where she finally addresses her suspicions to Henry Tillney who quickly sets her mind right and explains that all her thoughts were mere conjecture of the worst kind. She realizes that her thought processes were wrong and how harmful such thinking could be, to assume the worst could have led to the worst of consequences if anyone had chosen to listen to Catherine at her highest imaginings.

I've heard some people find this book not their favorite Austen book but personally, I think its one of my favorites, its so incredibly light, so sweet, and so tongue in cheek I can't help but want a copy of my very own.