"Her thoughts being still chiefly fixed on what she had with such causeless terror felt and done, nothing would shortly be clearer, then that it had all been a voluntary, self-centered delusion, each trifling circumstance receiving importance from an imagination resolved on alarm, and everything forced to bend to one purpose by a mind which, before she entered the abbey, had been craving to be frightened." (p.192-193)

Northanger Abbey is, principally, a reassurance that even before the classification was officially recognized, teenagers have always been exactly the same as they are now.

From the onset of the novel, Austen positions (in a very tongue-in-cheek sort of way) our protagonist, Catherine, as not only the main character of the novel, but of life: "from fifteen to seventeen, she was in training for a heroine." (p.11)

And really, what teenager doesn't fancy themselves the hero or heroine of the world?

This notion that Catherine somewhat fancies herself life's protagonist while being blown around by outside forces and impacting the flow of events very little absolutely tracks, to humorous effect.

Because while she is content to be the hero of the story playing out in her own imagination, and delights in the idea (particularly after arriving at the titular Northanger Abbey) of bearing witness to and being the star of a Gothic novel, she is also revealed to be painfully self-conscious when real life events force her into the spotlight, and as well relatively naive when it comes to identifying the ill-will (or affection) of others towards her.

Maybe this is pure projection on my part, but that all seems to indicate a deep understanding on Jane Austen's part of the juxtaposition of main-character-syndrome and a lack of life experience swirling around inside the minds of teenagers, and those especially who are more head in the clouds than feet on the ground. Having been one of them, it was all too easy to find Catherine incredibly relatable, the two hundred years between Catherine's teenage years and mine notwithstanding.

And there's something comforting in the reassurance that people have pretty much always been the same.

Northanger Abbey wasn't at all what I expected, having had it described as 'the one where the main girlie reads too many Gothic novels and starts to think of herself as the heroine of such a novel and loses her grip on reality.' That does happen, but I wouldn't say the driving force behind the story is to satirize Gothic novels by any means; we don't even get to Northanger Abbey until halfway through the story. And even then, the mini plot as described above takes up very little space in the narrative and has little bearing on any of the major events.

But even though it ultimately doesn't matter that this happens, and even though the real plot is much more typical Austen fare: poking fun at social rules and conventions of the middle classes, a love story complicated by those rules and conventions, some misunderstandings wrapped up in those rules and conventions-- you get the idea-- it's still a charming story, and Catherine and her love interest are perfectly agreeable.

Honestly, though, even though I could see myself in Catherine, it was one of the villains of the story, her duplicitous acquaintance (for the sake of anyone who might want to read the story I won't reveal which one) that makes a better character. And even though this character's well...character is pretty vile, they (and their sibling for that matter) were incredibly entertaining in their transparent schemey-ness. The fact that Catherine couldn't see it made it all the more funny.

Really enjoyed the reading experience, so I'd consider myself satisfied at its having been my first Jane Austen. And I suspect that any precocious teenage reader of a similar disposition would really see themselves in ‘Northanger Abbey.’