Gatsby, is that you?
by dianaquan
Might I begin this blog post with this statement: Not too shabby Northanger Abbey. (Oh hey, that rhymed!)
At first, not having read the summary on the back, I walked right into that thing without a clue of what to expect. Come to think of it, I’m still uncertain of the era I pictured the story taking place is the one Austen intended us to envision.
On that note, Northanger Abbey reminded me of The Great Gatsby. Here are some of the reasons why:
- the lavish social events they attended resembled Gatsby’s over-the-top parties
- the intriguing Mr.Tilley and/or General Tilley bore loose resemblance to Mr.Gatsby himself
- the entourage that Catherine hung out with behaved quite similarly to Daisy’s group of friends, with the same pompous and carefree manner
This is probably one of the contributing factors as to why I liked this story. Even though it didn’t take place in the 1920’s like The Great Gatsby did, the similarities between the settings sometimes made me picture the plot taking place in the 20’s (yes, I really do love the 20’s and the fact that the pop culture of 2013 saw many revivals of the splendor of that decade).
Another thing I really enjoyed was the roller coaster of frustration it made me feel. Early on, since we were introduced to our main character, I had developed an attachment to her, whether I liked it or not. Every time something went right I would be shared some of her emotion only to be disappointed again by whatever plot twists and misfortunes Catherine had to face. Maybe this is me being an overly sentimental girl but I really liked how there was romance in this story! I’m a sucker for a love story, even if this one wasn’t as epic as Stefan and Elena from the Vampire Diaries (a tv show, for those of you who don’t know) or cheesy (but we love them anyway), like a Nicholas Sparks novel.
Can I also say that the huge paragraphs on the pages where it looked like a brick wall of words were just so horrible to see as soon as you turned the page. I’m guessing it looked like this because of the way the dialogue was written within those paragraphs too. But that’s just what I’m used to.
Noticed the dialogue being written within paragraphs as well. I have next to no idea about standard quote/dialogue grammar. Kind of just figured it was an older way of structuring dialogue.
Glad I’m not the only romantic! There was something kind of nice about their love story, however strange – although the formality is a sign of the time period …
Didn’t notice the Gatsby connection before. Glad you pointed that out! I’m totally feeling you on the attachment to Catherine. I definitely had a “kindred spirit” sort of feeling.
Interesting connection to Gatsby. I haven’t read that book for a while (though I saw last year’s movie); would have to think about it more.
But about your attachment to Catherine… Well, she’s nice enough and all. But she’s a bit of an idiot, isn’t she?
Diana, it would also probably be worth turning off comment moderation. To do that…
Go to your Dashboard. Go to Settings > Discussion. Under “Before a comment appears,” uncheck “Comment must be manually approved” and probably also uncheck “Comment author must have a previously approved comment.”