Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining!, Oct 20 2009
The heroine in this novel is Catherine Morland, who is just an average girl with straightforward manners and not an ounce of pretension; yet, she has an outrageously vivid imagination. This is cleverly and Austen-intended, I believe, to purposely deviate from the conventional heroines of the times.
The story begins with Catherine joining a friend of the family, Mrs. Allen, for a vacation at her home in Bath. Her days are filled with socializing, taking walks and especially spending time at the Pump- room, where she meets the rather hard-edged Henry Tilney. Catherines simple, yet direct and opinionated responses and approaches in conversation lead her to distancing Henry for a while.
Realizing that she has feelings for him, Catherine begins to wish she could see Henry again and does everything possible for that to happen. Meanwhile she befriends Isabella Thorpe who shares her passion for books and poetry. As the two become inseparable, Catherine feels close enough to Isabella to tell her all about her feelings for Henry Tilney
In fulfilling her dreams of being with Henry, Catherines journey evolves through a fiasco of events revealing true personalities, feelings and deceptions. Other important characters that help bring this about involve John Thorpe, Isabellas brother, who is full of mischief and schemes. As well, Catherines brother James, is one who has a love-story of his own to mourn over as his sister begins to put all pieces of the puzzle together. Just to add to lifes intricacies, Henry and Catherine become at odds about a dilemma, caused mainly by Catherines imagination. The couples difficulties do not stop there as problems get compounded by family misunderstandings.
Confusion of events? You bet. This story is filled with the ups-and downs of young love, anxious situations and very comical moments. Catherine was a girl before her times, which makes situations heartening as well as endearing and perfectly understandable. I gasped, laughed and truly enjoyed this Jane Austen novel. Its the perfect introduction to the authors subsequent masterpieces.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Witty, Excellent Story, Jun 12 2008
I'm surprised at some of the negative reviews on here saying the book is boring, the dialogue annoying, and the plot lacking. I'd say they've missed the point of this book. It does have a good plot, but it's more realistic than the usual story. Yes, it may be more commonplace, but I found it refreshing. The story focuses on conversation and people and Catherine, which I enjoyed because it was so skillfully done. The characters rang so true, Henry Tilney made me laugh out loud, Catherine was sweet and funny and the ending was wonderful. I loved this book! It's my second favourite Austen book next to Emma.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Uniteresting and predictable, Mar 15 2008
I don't know whether it was because I took two months to complete this book, but this novel was a typical story about a girl named Catherine who likes Henry, but James likes her, and tries to separate her from Henry. This novel does tell you a great deal about the time period in which it was written: the 1800s. For example, a girl's only objective was to get married, and the only thing women did was gossip. This Broadview edition is great; there are detailed explanations of words on the same page in which they occur, instead of being near the back of the book. Also, the pages make the text easy to read.
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by Jane Austen
by Jane Austen
by Jane Austen
by Jane Austen
by Jane Austen
