[JJ Feild and Felicity Jones in the delightful 2007 ITV adaptation of NORTHANGER ABBEY.]
Chapter 9:
Next Thorpe scares Catherine as to the perilous
state of her brother James's carriage, & then contradicts himself with the
next breath.
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. "
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."
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.
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:
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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