Northanger Abbey, Twitter Version: Chapters 9-11

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[JJ Feild and Felicity Jones in the delightful 2007 ITV adaptation of NORTHANGER ABBEY.]

Chapter 9:  Northanger Abbey date from hell:Thorpe takes Catherine for a drive, boasts of his dangerous horse & asks if Mr. Allen is "as rich as a Jew."  

Next Thorpe scares Catherine as to the perilous state of her brother James's carriage, & then contradicts himself with the next breath.

Catherine has never before met w/any people who were "in the habit…of telling lies to increase their importance." Or bragging endlessly.

Thus despite Thorpe's being Isabella's bro & James's bud, Catherine's not sure that he is "altogether completely agreeable."

And when Catherine hears she missed seeing Henry Tilney that day, it is "clear to her "that John Thorpe himself was quite disagreeable."

 

CHAPTER 10:

 

The next day is more promising. Catherine sees Eleanor Tilney in the Pump Room and makes an effort to be friends.

 

"'How well your brother dances!' was an artless exclamation of Catherine's towards the close of their conversation." Eleanor is amused.

 

"Henry!" she replied with a smile. "Yes, he does dance very well."

 

Catherine: "Was not the young lady he danced with on Monday a Miss Smith?... I dare say she was very glad to dance."

 

Catherine: "Do you think her pretty?" Eleanor: "Not very." Are there any sweeter words than this?

 

Does Henry ever come to the Pump Room, asks Catherine, & will they be at the ball tomorrow? Eleanor's answer makes Catherine very happy.

 

Catherine & Eleanor "parted -- on Miss Tilney's side with some knowledge of her new acquaintance's feelings… "

 

"…and on Catherine's, without the smallest consciousness of having explained them." If only she had time to buy a new gown for the ball.

A waste of a thought, "for man only can be aware of the insensibility of man towards a new gown."

 

"Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it."

 

@ the ball, Catherine escapes Thorpe, & Henry asks her to dance. "It did not appear to her that life could supply any greater felicity."

Thorpe acts all insulted, claiming Catherine promised to dance with him. Henry thinks that Thorpe should get lost.

Henry: "I consider a country-dance as an emblem of marriage." Men "have no business with the partners or wives of their neighbours."

Dancing & marriage are not the same, says Catherine. "People that marry can never part, but must go and keep house together. "

Catherine: "People that dance only stand opposite each other in a long room for half an hour."

Perhaps, says Henry, but "You will allow, that in both, man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal."

Henry: & in both, it is in the best interest of men & women to avoid "fancying that they should have been better off with any one else."

Catherine: "Yes, to be sure…but still they are so very different." Henry finds her position "rather alarming."  

Henry asks: Does that mean if Thorpe were to return just now, or some other man, she would give all her attention to him?

Well, Thorpe's her brother's good friend, so she'd have to talk to him. But she knows hardly any other men at the ball.

Henry: "And is that to be my only security? alas, alas!"

Catherine: "Nay, I am sure you cannot have a better; for if I do not know any body, it is impossible for me to talk to them…"  

Catherine: "…and, besides, I do not want to talk to anybody."  

Henry: "Now you have given me a security worth having; and I shall proceed with courage."    

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CHAPTER 11:

Catherine ends her night w/the happy prospect of seeing Henry the next day for a country walk w/him & Eleanor.

Except that it rains. And when the sun makes an appearance, so do Isabella, James, & John Thorpe, who insist she go driving w/them.

Catherine wants to wait for her friends. But Thorpe insists he saw them driving out of Bath. And he promises to show her Blaize Castle.

How can Catherine resist? She loves ancient buildings better than anything, except perhaps scary novels like The Mysteries of Udolpho.

As Thorpe drives off with Catherine, she catches sight of Henry and Eleanor—who see her, too—and she tells Thorpe to stop the carriage!

"But Mr. Thorpe only laughed, smacked his whip, encouraged his horse, made odd noises, and drove on." [What sort of odd noises?]

[And now I shall call it a night (or a morning), & hopefully without the sound of John Thorpe's odd noises echoing in my ears...]

"Catherine, angry and vexed as she was, having no power of getting away, was obliged to give up the point and submit."

"How could you deceive me so?" says she, but Thorpe won't admit it. Plus, it's too late to make it to Blaize Castle, & so they go back.

Even worse, when she arrives at the Allens' she learns that Henry & Eleanor had come by just a few minutes after she left with Thorpe.

"And now I may dismiss my heroine to the sleepless couch…to a pillow strewed with thorns and wet with tears."

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