Buch 49 / 2008
Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey (1817)
Dt. Titel: Kloster Northanger
Meine Bewertung:
Autorin (Verlagsinfo, Penguin Classics)
Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 at Steventon, near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. (...) They moved to Bath when her father retired in 1801. After his death (...) they settled in Chawton (...). Here she remained (...) until in May 1817 she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. There she died on 18 July 1817.
(...) As a girl she wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances. Here works were published only after much revision, four novels being published in her lifetime. These are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815). Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1817 (...).
Inhalt (Klappentext, Penguin Classics)
During an eventful season at Bath, young, naive Catherine Morland experiences fashionable society for the first time. She is delighted with her new acquaintances: flirtatious Isabella, who introduces Catherine to the joys of Gothic romances, and sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney, who invite her to their father's house, Northanger Abbey. There, influenced by novels of horror and intrigue, Catherine comes to imagine terrible crimes committed by General Tilney, risking the loss of Henry's affection, and has to learn the difference between fiction and reality, false friends and true. With its broad comedy and irrepressible heroine, Northanger Abbey is the most youthful and optimistic of Jane Austen's works.
Meine Meinung
Wer der Ansicht ist, Jane Austens Romane seien nur Liebesgeschichten, wird mit Northanger Abbey (hoffentlich) eines besseren belehrt. Der Roman steckt voller Witz und Ironie, und richtet sich vor allem gegen die zu Austens Zeit so populären Gothic Novels mit ihrer übertrieben Romantik, der schaurigen Stimmung und den „mysteriösen“ Abenteuern die hinter jeder Ecke auf die Heldin warten. Schon zu Beginn des Buches stellt Austen klar, dass ihre Protagonistin Catherine nicht die Erwartungen der typischen Gothic Novel Heldin gerecht wird:
„No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother; her own person and disposition, were all equally against her. (...) She [Catherine] was fond of all boys' plays, and greatly preferred cricket not merely to dolls, but to the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush. (...) Her greatest deficiency was in the pencil - she had no notion of drawing - not enough even to attempt a sketch of her lover's profile, that she might be detected in the design. There she fell miserably short ot the true heroic height. (...) She had reached the age of seventeen, without having seen one amiable youth who could call forth her sensibility; without having inspired one real passion (...) This was strange indeed! (...) There was not one lord in the neighbourhood; no - not even a baronet. There was not one family among their acquaintance who had reared and supported a boy accidentally found at their door - not one young man whose origine was unknown. (...)
But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.“ (S. 17-18)
Neben den Seitenhieben auf die Gothic Novel beschreibt Austen vor allem die psychologische Entwicklung ihrer Protagonistin, die Anfangs gesellschaftlich unerfahren, naiv und verträumt ist, und letzten Endes feststellt, dass im Leben nicht alles so läuft, wie in einem mittelmäßigen Roman.
Für mich ein sehr beeindruckendes und amüsantes Buch, wobei gesagt sein muss, dass man hier wirklich aufmerksam lesen muss, um alle Schattierungen von Austens Humor mitbekommt. Wer Northanger Abbey in Erwartung einer einfacher Liebesschnulze liest, wird enttäuscht sein. Aber keine Sorge, so ganz ohne Liebesgeschichte kommt der Roman natürlich nicht aus, und wie gewohnt steht diese im Zusammenhang mit dem Zwiespalt Vernunft vs. Gefühl.
Dt. Titel: Kloster Northanger
Meine Bewertung:
Autorin (Verlagsinfo, Penguin Classics)
Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 at Steventon, near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. (...) They moved to Bath when her father retired in 1801. After his death (...) they settled in Chawton (...). Here she remained (...) until in May 1817 she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. There she died on 18 July 1817.
(...) As a girl she wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances. Here works were published only after much revision, four novels being published in her lifetime. These are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815). Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1817 (...).
Inhalt (Klappentext, Penguin Classics)
During an eventful season at Bath, young, naive Catherine Morland experiences fashionable society for the first time. She is delighted with her new acquaintances: flirtatious Isabella, who introduces Catherine to the joys of Gothic romances, and sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney, who invite her to their father's house, Northanger Abbey. There, influenced by novels of horror and intrigue, Catherine comes to imagine terrible crimes committed by General Tilney, risking the loss of Henry's affection, and has to learn the difference between fiction and reality, false friends and true. With its broad comedy and irrepressible heroine, Northanger Abbey is the most youthful and optimistic of Jane Austen's works.
Meine Meinung
Wer der Ansicht ist, Jane Austens Romane seien nur Liebesgeschichten, wird mit Northanger Abbey (hoffentlich) eines besseren belehrt. Der Roman steckt voller Witz und Ironie, und richtet sich vor allem gegen die zu Austens Zeit so populären Gothic Novels mit ihrer übertrieben Romantik, der schaurigen Stimmung und den „mysteriösen“ Abenteuern die hinter jeder Ecke auf die Heldin warten. Schon zu Beginn des Buches stellt Austen klar, dass ihre Protagonistin Catherine nicht die Erwartungen der typischen Gothic Novel Heldin gerecht wird:
„No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother; her own person and disposition, were all equally against her. (...) She [Catherine] was fond of all boys' plays, and greatly preferred cricket not merely to dolls, but to the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush. (...) Her greatest deficiency was in the pencil - she had no notion of drawing - not enough even to attempt a sketch of her lover's profile, that she might be detected in the design. There she fell miserably short ot the true heroic height. (...) She had reached the age of seventeen, without having seen one amiable youth who could call forth her sensibility; without having inspired one real passion (...) This was strange indeed! (...) There was not one lord in the neighbourhood; no - not even a baronet. There was not one family among their acquaintance who had reared and supported a boy accidentally found at their door - not one young man whose origine was unknown. (...)
But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.“ (S. 17-18)
Neben den Seitenhieben auf die Gothic Novel beschreibt Austen vor allem die psychologische Entwicklung ihrer Protagonistin, die Anfangs gesellschaftlich unerfahren, naiv und verträumt ist, und letzten Endes feststellt, dass im Leben nicht alles so läuft, wie in einem mittelmäßigen Roman.
Für mich ein sehr beeindruckendes und amüsantes Buch, wobei gesagt sein muss, dass man hier wirklich aufmerksam lesen muss, um alle Schattierungen von Austens Humor mitbekommt. Wer Northanger Abbey in Erwartung einer einfacher Liebesschnulze liest, wird enttäuscht sein. Aber keine Sorge, so ganz ohne Liebesgeschichte kommt der Roman natürlich nicht aus, und wie gewohnt steht diese im Zusammenhang mit dem Zwiespalt Vernunft vs. Gefühl.