Ch. 16-18 (or Vol. 2 Ch. 1-3)

My Thoughts/Musings/Ramblings

Ch. 16/Vol. 2 Ch. 1

Isabella is a real piece of work.  First, she takes Catherine's complaints about her visit to the Tilneys' to a whole other level (Catherine keeps having to tell her, "Ok, no, I didn't say it was that bad,") and then she goes back on her decision not to dance at all since she couldn't dance with her absent fiance.  And the way she and her mother kept talking about Mr. Morland's decisions about how James would support himself felt very ungrateful--like, they kept talking about how it's all Isabella would need, because she's so simple and doesn't need much.  Ouch!

Ch. 17/Vol. 2 Ch. 2

This chapter sets up the real action of Volume 2: Catherine's visit to Northanger Abbey, home of the Tilneys.  Catherine is pretty excited about getting to hang out with Henry all the time, but mostly she's excited to visit a real abbey.  (Basically, imagine one of your friends invited you back to their old, probably haunted English castle: you'd totally expect Hogwarts, right?)  

Also, this visit is not as weird as it feels to me.  Because travel was a real pain, people visited friends and family for longer periods of time, and as long as there's a sister in the mix (officially, Catherine is her guest, not Henry's) this is all kosher.  The Allens have given their stamp of approval, and the Morlands have no idea how clueless Mrs. Allen is, so they're on board too.  Man, wasn't life easier before parents had cellphones and Google?

Ch. 18/Vol. 2 Ch. 3

Oh, yikes.  I guess we should not be surprised, but John Thorpe seems to think he basically proposed to Catherine (and that she basically said yes, or at least encouraged him to ask for real.)  Oops.

Also: Catherine, dear, sweet Catherine, walks away from Flirtsville (population: 2) still believing that Isabella must not realize that Captain Tilney is falling for her.  Because after all, Isabella is engaged to James, and she would never change her mind.  No one would ever do that, right?


'What one means one day, you know, one may not mean the next.  Circumstances change, opinions alter."
--Isabella Thorpe (p. 292)


"People seldom know what they want...they are so amazingly changeable and inconsistent."
--Isabella Thorpe (p. 292)




"Tilney says, there is nothing people are so often deceived in, as the state of their own affections, and I believe he is very right."
--Isabella Thorpe (p. 292)

...oh.  Yikes.

My Takeaways: 

Catherine is growing, if possible, even more innocent and naive by the day.  Girl: you have got to catch a clue.  Have you ever met people?  None of this is normal.



Vocab/Clarifications

Ch. 16/Vol. 2 Ch. 1

The money promised to James and Isabella, in the form of a living and later an inheritance that would provide income of its own, is enough to get by in a small way.  The idea of "middle class" didn't exist in the same way then that it does now; rather, there were different gradations of wealthy ("upper class") families, and then there was everyone else.  Even characters who seem to be on the poor side (the Morlands, with their many children and modest means, or Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice) are considered upper class due to factors including family name/heritage, land owning, and wealth.  They would never socialize, for example, with the families of their servants (even well-to-do merchants faced obstacles in becoming part of society.)  So James and Isabella would still be a part of the upper-class world, which would mean that they would have to stretch their smallish income to keep up a certain kind of lifestyle.

Ch. 17/Vol. 2 Ch. 2

se'ennight (p. 280)--a week from.  So "Saturday se'ennight" would be a week from Saturday.  (This one seems pretty intuitive--but did you realize "fortnight" works the same way?  That word means two weeks--or fourteen nights, which contracts to fortnight.)

Ch. 18/Vol. 2 Ch. 3

Ok, so I know everyone in these novels always seems so formal (since manners have relaxed quite a bit since Austen's time) but even to my modern ear, Isabella's "Tilney says" toward the end of the first page of this chapter sounds bizarrely familiar.  That simply was not done!