Northanger Abbey

By: Jane Austen

Narrated by: Anna Massey

Catherine Morland reads tales of Gothic romance, yet leads a country life in Wiltshire. When she travels to Bath, she meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney. She is invited by his sister and father to stay at Northanger Abbey, where she meets all the trappings of Gothic horror that she has read about. Fortunately, she has her own good sense and irresistible but unsentimental hero, Henry Tilney.©1989, 2008 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Good, but some tough narration points

The narrator is a very good reader and does perfectly fitting voices for many of the characters, but some of the voice inflections she did for certain characters were horrid, especially for men. Like Thorp for instance… her voice there was nasal and difficult to listen to. She mostly did it for characters that were obnoxious or ridiculous by design, but oh that voice…I had to jump past some parts just to get by. Thankfully, I’ve read the book, so I know what I’m skipping, but if you haven’t, you’re going to have to suffer the grind of getting through. Even annoying characters have to be able to be listened to without wincing or it destroys the whole listen.

Snarky wit with unfortunate narration

The narrator, while accurately and carefully portraying the personality of each character with her different voices, made some of them almost impossible to listen to. This book has always been a lighthearted take on the novel itself, and stands the test of time, but the story was hard to enjoy this time.

Super funny and unique!

Since Jane Austen wrote this so early in her life it is tainted with youth. It’s a great story. Her writing style is so unique and engrossing at points that you forget you’re reading.

Probably the most openly funny Austen Novel

Charming and silly. I think I see Jane Austen’s personality best in this one.

The heroine is excitable and dramatic and the hero is quick witted and playful. And everything is tied up as neat as a bow at the end

Just a fun listen

Sometimes felt it was over acted. Jane Austin is always fun but predictable. It was perfect after a long stressful day to smile and relax on the commute home.

Eh...great since it’s free...

The Narration was fine, but did get a little monotonous... such slow fine talk on such petty detailed narrative got a little old, but I made it through! I had a hard time figuring out how to read it... at first it seemed like it was sarcastic and humorous, but then turned a little bitter, then scary and suspenseful... so I think I need some education on it. I particularly enjoyed Jane Austen's candid and open talk about her theories on writing. "Novels are to be written this way or that..." And "readers most enjoy this and that"(paraphrases of course). I found this humorous and helpful at the same time.
The characters probably will not hold a strong impression in my heart or life, but they are honest characters whom I expect to see and now at least recognize in my own experience and in my own short life time.

Definitely not my favorite Austen story

It’s almost as if she didn’t know where she wanted the story to go or had to hurry and finish it. SO much build up and mystery for…what? A regular and expedited happy ending? I didn’t hate it, but I wouldn’t listen to or read it again.

I came to Austen via Rowling. Thanks JKR.

I may be a rare person that actually prefers a single narrator. This was just as good as the Audible Original Drama version. I don't need theatrics to enliven the story.
Let's imagine that you did not know the word "gothic" other than as some kind of wardrobe. This is the place to start. A mere 40 years after The Castle of Otranto; ninety years before Dracula, 190 years before Harry Potter. Gives us another Swift-like example of satire. It is fun to see how she plays with the narrational voice, in a way that is rare today.

As I noted, scholars (eg Beatrice Grove "Literary Allusion...") of the works of JKR keep pointing here. Really glad I checked out these references to Austen and Brontë.

Narrator nearly drove me mad!

As long as the narrator portrayed women she was good. Her voice for the male characters was like nails on a chalkboard.

It’s an inside joke!

I first read this book a few years ago at the suggestion of my two best friends. They encouraged me that it was their favorite because Austen so clearly mocks classic Gothic literature. When I read it then, I was unenthused. I trudged through with difficulty.

This time, however, I found myself laughing out loud. Having read “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” and so many of Austen’s own work, she really does mock the genre and even some of her own tropes. She describes Catherine as the “heroine” throughout and, at times, makes statements about what COULD happen or SHOULD happen to a heroine, but do not in this story. The narrative, as a result, feels uneventful in the end.

This is, I think, the most distinct of Austen’s novels. Catherine isn’t highly intelligent but actually rather simple minded and immature. She is enraptured throughout by horror stories, exciting her own imagination that things are not what they seem but eerie and perverse like the novels she is reading. She works herself up into a real terror at the movement of a curtain or the opening of a dark black wardrobe only to find nothing inside it. For this reason, I think this is more of a coming of age story where she learns not to be so easily excitable and to have realistic expectations of people and places.

“Northanger Abbey” is like a giant inside joke; and if you haven’t read any gothic literature before reading this one, you won’t get it.