Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: Northanger Abbey Author: Jane Austen ISBN: 0-451-52636-8 Publisher: Signet classic Type of book: Regency, 1790s?-1800s? Bath, vacation,  young adult, Gothic parody, England, pretenses Year it was published: 1818 Summary: The most sprightly and satirical of Austen's novels, Northanger Abbey is both a comedy of manners and a cautionary tale. Written when the author herself was in early twenties, the novel takes for its heroine seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland, a spirited young woman preoccupied with the pleasures of dressing, dancing, and reading sensational novels. When she is on a visit to the fashionable spa town of Bath, Catherine's naive charm makes her prey to the sinister influences of the ambitious Thorpe family. But she is rescued by handsome Henry Tilney for a visit to his ancestral home, Northanger Abbey, where Catherien's choice of reading material comes back to haunt her. The rambling house full of locked doors and the family...

Name of Book: Persuasion Author: Jane Austen ISBN: 0-14-043005-9 Publisher: Penguin Classic Type of book: mature, 1814-1816? England, poetry, parody, second chance, marriage novel Year it was published: 1818 (version I have 1985) Summary: In Persuasion, her last novel, Jane Austen reveals her most mature dissection of people, place and social setting. Like the earlier works Persuasion is a tale of love and marriage, told with the irony, insight and just evaluation of human conduct which sets her novels apart. But the heroine - like the author - is more mature; the tone of the writing more sombre. Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth have met and separated years before. Their reunion forces a recognition of the false values that drove them apart. The characters who embody those values are the subjects of some of the most withering satire that Jane Austen ever wrote. Characters: The best way to describe the main characters are repressed and for the most part hardly vi...