Em defesa de Northanger Abbey
Lê-se muito a respeito de Northanger Abbey, essa sombra na obra de Jane Austen.
Pergunto-me, será por a heroína não possuir um carácter sólido, forte e maduro? Será por ser ingénua, pura e infantil?
Devo confessar que não fiquei extasiada da primeira vez que li Northanger Abbey. Mas há medida que o tempo passa, vou gostando cada vez mais da pureza de Catherine Morland.
"She was born to be an heroine"...
Deixo aqui um comentário que encontrei no site Jane Austen Society UK e que achei interessante pois dá uma perspectiva engraçada sobre o Romance. Nunca tinha pensado em Northanger Abbey como um Romance que idolatrava outro Romance, o que é bastante curioso!
Defence of the novel
Northanger Abbey contains Jane Austen's famous defence of the novelist's art. Catherine Morland's favourite reading is novels. 'Yes, novels,' Jane Austen writes, 'for if the heroine of one novel be not patronised by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard?' She gives a specimen of the common cant:
"And what are you reading, Miss -?" "Oh, it is only a novel!" replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference or momentary shame.-"It is only Cecilia or Camilla or Belinda"; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.
It is a nice irony that though dangerous when confused with real life, novels can actually give us knowledge of our fellow human beings that surpasses that of real life.