Northanger Abbey - Tumblr Posts
Have you ever done/do you know if there is a ranking of Jane Austen couples based on how long they knew each other before the proposal? Every time I reread Pride and Prejudice I can’t help but think about how little time Jane and Bingley have actually spent together
Jane Austen Charted #11!
This is a wonderful idea! I have it ready. Here are all the couples that marry in each book with sufficient data for me to record. This is from meeting to engagement:
Now if we put them in order of length, we can see just how very short some of these relationships were:
Caveats: I was as exact as possible, so for example, despite "knowing" Mr. Bingley for about a year, Jane only spent 6 weeks in his actual presence. I also took out Wentworth's absence from Anne from Dec to Feb 15 etc.
I want to say something about time not being the same. Harriet and Robert Martin were staying at the same house for 2 months, so that's a lot more face to face time than say Jane and Bingley, but I don't have a great way to represent that.
We do not have sufficient data for Jane Fairfax & Frank Churchill or Maria Bertram & James Rushworth, though I would estimate about 8 weeks for the latter couple. John Willoughby also knew Sophia Grey for an unspecified amount of time before the more official courtship and marriage. Mr. Weston and Miss Taylor is also unknown, Emma predicted it 4 years prior, but we can assume they had met before that time.
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Collins knew each other for about 10 days before the proposal, but that did not result in a marriage. Henry Crawford and Fanny Price is again difficult, because while Henry and Fanny were introduced and “knew” each other, he didn’t pay attention to her until the Miss Bertrams left. Also did not end in a marriage. From "hole in her heart" to proposal was only about a month.
If we take out the outliers (Marianne and Colonel Brandon, Emma and Mr. Knightley, and Fanny and Edmund), we can see the longest period of knowing is Lydia and Mr. Wickham! But most are under 15 weeks or about 3.5 months
Of course, the length of time may not be important after all, Mrs. Croft says, "“We had better not talk about it, my dear... for if Miss Elliot were to hear how soon we came to an understanding, she would never be persuaded that we could be happy together. I had known you by character, however, long before.” - Persuasion
But yeah, from a modern perspective these lifelong decisions are happening pretty darn quick!
Sources:
David Shapard's The Annotated Pride and Prejudice
And these wonderful online calendars
http://mars.gmu.edu/bitstream/handle/1920/999/emma.calendar.html http://www.jimandellen.org/austen/persuasion.calendar.html http://mars.gmu.edu/bitstream/handle/1920/999/mp.calendar.html http://www.jimandellen.org/austen/na.calendar.html
Ok but can we just take a minute how Jane Austen spent an entire page (at least on my language) during "Nothanger Abbey" to rant about how fucking annoying the criticism about romance was? I felt like she was sitting by my side rambling about what, in modern day, she would probably call "those bitches"
I have no notion of loving people by halves -Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)
my pic/:
‘I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature. My attachments are always excessively strong.’
Jane Austen, “Northanger abbey”
Jane Austen was really out there 200 years ago writing lines like “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more” that to this day are still so swoon-worthy.
Me: I’ve had a good day, let’s watch Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Also me: I’ve had a bad day, let’s watch Pride and Prejudice (2005)
“I love you the more in that I believe you had liked me for my own sake and for nothing else.”
— John Keats
Northanger Abbey (2007)
dir. Jon Jones
henry tilney is really out there being witty and charming... understanding muslin... what a guy
Northanger Abbey is so underrated like no offense but the heroine of that book is into sports and shenanigans growing up and doesn’t learn anything in school or have any accomplishments or interests until she has a growth spurt, gets hot, and reads so many gothic novels that she almost ruins her relationship w her love interest bc she convinces herself his house is haunted and does an inappropriate ghost hunt.
She had nothing to do but to forgive herself and be happier than ever.
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (via wholesomeobsessive)
i'm kinda worried cause catherine morland is so relatable i couldn help but think while i was reading the northanger abbey that that silly dumbass girl who can't get her head out of gothic books e imagine her life more than live it could easily be me
‘I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature. My attachments are always excessively strong.’
Jane Austen, “Northanger abbey”
Does anyone else DIE OF CUTENESS whenever they read Northanger Abbey or is that just me?
I died right here:
enjoyed her usual happiness with Henry Tilney, listening with sparkling eyes to everything he said; and, in finding him irresistible, becoming so herself…
And here:
Is there a Henry in the world who could be insensible to such a declaration? Henry Tilney at least was not.
And here:
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.
There we go, I died again. I hope you’re happy Jane Austen!
does anyone want to form a john thorpe hate club?
reading through northanger abbey and i am utterly overcome by the distate i have for this man. not to say i don’t have thoughts on the other characters but another post should be dedicated to them.
1. why is he talking incessantly about his gig. is this the regency equivalent of ‘man obsessed with his car’
2. “Novels are all so full of nonsense and stuff... as for all the others, they are the stupidest things in creation.” bad news buddy. i can’t wait to tell you what kind of medium you are being described in! stop trying to put down your companion!
3. “her companion assur[ed] her that it was entirely owing to the peculiarly judicious manner in which he had then held the reins, and the singular discernment and dexterity with which he had directed his whip.” of course it is, john.
4. “Old Allen is as rich as a Jew—is not he?” and we have JEWISH STEREOTYPES?
5. now he is talking about drinking. and oxford. and drinking in oxford. and not making any sense. is there or is there not a lot of drinking.
6. and now he contradicts himself on the curricle!
7. he’s talking about horses. he’s very materialistic, huh?
8. “And then you know”—twisting himself about and forcing a foolish laugh—“I say, then you know, we may try the truth of this same old song.” you aren’t smooth, john. catherine why on earth are you putting up with him,,,,,
general tilney is giving abusive(?) father vibes. something’s afoot...
“Instead of finding herself improved in acquaintance with Miss Tilney, from the intercourse of the day, she seemed hardly so intimate with her as before; instead of seeing Henry Tilney to greater advantage than ever, in the ease of a family party, he had never said so little, nor been so little agreeable...”
“General Tilney, though so charming a man, seemed always a check upon his children’s spirits, and scarcely anything was said but by himself; the observation of which, with his discontent at whatever the inn afforded, and his angry impatience at the waiters...”