34 Northanger Abbey - Read By Stephanie Poppins

Northanger Abbey is the coming-of-age story of a young woman named Catherine Morland.

Northanger Abbey" by Jane Austen follows Catherine Morland, a young woman with a passion for Gothic novels, as she navigates the social world of Bath and later Northanger Abbey. Her romantic imagination, fueled by her love for these novels, leads her to misinterpret the people and events around her, particularly at the Tilney family's estate.

In this episode, Catherine makes a decision.

Transcript

Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph,

Your go-to podcast that offers you a calm and relaxing transition into a great night's sleep.

It is time to relax and fully let go.

There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.

Close your eyes and feel yourself sink into the support beneath you and let all the worries of the day drift away.

This is your time and your space.

Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out with a long sigh.

There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.

Happy listening.

The room in question was of a commodious world-proportioned size and handsomely fitted up as a dining parlour and on their quitting it to walk round the grounds,

Catherine was shown,

First into a smaller apartment belonging,

Peculiarly,

To the master of the house and made unusually tidy on the occasion,

And afterwards into what was to be the drawing room,

With the appearance of which,

Though unfurnished,

Catherine was delighted enough even to satisfy the general.

It was a prettily shaped room,

The windows reaching to the ground,

And the view from them pleasant,

Though only over green meadows,

And she expressed her admiration at the moment with all the honest simplicity with which she felt.

Oh,

Why do you not fit up this room,

Mr Tilney?

What a pity not to have it fitted up.

It's the prettiest room I ever saw.

It's the prettiest room in the world.

I trust,

Said the general with a most satisfied smile,

It will be very speedily furnished.

It waits only for a lady's taste.

Well,

If it were my house,

I should never sit anywhere else.

What a sweet little cottage there is among the trees.

Apple trees,

Too.

It's the prettiest cottage.

You like it.

You approve it as an object.

It is enough.

Henry,

Remember that Robinson is spoken to about it.

The cottage remains.

Such a compliment recalled all Catherine's consciousness and silenced her directly,

And though pointedly applied to by the general for her choice of the prevailing colour of the paper and hangings,

Nothing like an opinion on this subject could be drawn from her.

The influence of fresh objects and fresh air,

However,

Was of great use in dissipating these embarrassing associations,

And having reached the ornamental part of the premises,

Consisting of a walk round two sides of a meadow on which Henry's genius had begun to act about half a year ago,

She was sufficiently recovered to think it prettier than any pleasure ground she'd ever been in before,

Though there was not a shrub in it higher than the green bench in the corner.

A saunter into other meadows and through part of the village,

With a visit to the staples to examine some improvements,

And a charming game of play with a litter of puppies just about to roll about,

Brought them to four o'clock,

When Catherine scarcely thought it could be three.

At four they were to dine,

And at six set off on their return.

Never had any day passed so quickly.

Catherine could not but observe that the abundance of the dinner did not seem to create the smallest astonishment in the general,

Nay,

That he was even looking at the side table for cold meat which was not there.

His son and daughter's observations were of a different kind.

They had never seen him eat so heartily at any table but his own,

And they had never before known him so little disconcerted by the melted butters having been oiled.

At six o'clock,

The general having taken his coffee,

The carriage again received them,

And so gratifying had been the tenor of his conduct throughout the whole visit.

So well assured was Catherine's mind on the subject of his expectations,

That could she have felt equally confident of the wishes of his son,

She would have quitted Woodstone with little anxiety as to the how or the when she might return to it.

Chapter 27 The next morning brought the following very unexpected letter from Isabella.

My dearest Catherine,

I have received your two kind letters with the greatest delight and have a thousand apologies to make for not answering them sooner.

I really am quite ashamed of my idleness,

But in this horrid place one can find time for nothing.

I have had my pen in my hand to begin a letter to you almost every day since you left Bath,

But I have always been prevented by some silly trifle or another.

Pray write to me soon and direct me to my own home.

Thank God we leave this vile place tomorrow.

Since you went away I have had no pleasure in Bath.

The dust is beyond anything and everybody one cares for is gone.

I believe if I could see you I should not mind the rest,

For you are dearer to me than anybody can conceive.

I am quite uneasy about your dear brother,

Not having heard from him since he went to Oxford,

And I am fearful of some misunderstanding.

Your kind offices will set all right.

He is the only man I ever did or could love and I trust you will convince him of it.

The spring fashions are partly down and the hats the most frightful you can imagine.

I hope you will spend your time pleasantly,

But I am afraid you will never think of me.

I will not say all I could of the family you are with because I would not be ungenerous or set you against those you esteem,

But it is very difficult to know whom to trust and young men never know their minds two days together.

I rejoice to say the young man whom of all others I particularly abhor has left Bath.

You will know from this description I must mean Captain Tilney,

Who as you may remember was amazingly disposed to follow and tease me before you went away.

Afterwards he got worse and became quite my shadow.

Many girls might have been taken in for never with such attentions,

But I know the fickle sex too well.

He went away to his regiment two days ago and I trust I shall never be plagued with him again.

He is the greatest cockscomb I ever saw and amazingly disagreeable.

The last two days he was always by the side of Charlotte Davis.

I pitied his taste but took no notice of him.

The last time we met was in Bath Street and I turned directly into a shop that he might not speak to me.

I would not even look at him.

He went to the pump room afterwards but I would not have followed him for all the world.

Such a contrast between him and your brother.

Pray send me some news of the latter.

I am quite unhappy about him.

He seemed so uncomfortable when he went away,

With a cold or something that affected his spirits.

I would write to him myself but I mislaid his direction.

As I have hinted above,

I am afraid he took something in my conduct amiss.

Pray explain everything to his satisfaction,

Catherine.

Or if he still harbours any doubt,

A line from himself to me or a call at Putney when next in town might settle to rights.

I have not been to the rooms this age nor to the play except going in last night with the Hodges for a frolic at half price.

They teased me into it and I was determined they should not say I shut myself up because Tilney was gone.

We happened to sit by the Mitchells and they pretended to be quite surprised to see me out.

I knew their spite.

At one time they could not be civil to me but now they all friendship that I am not such a fool as to be taken in by them.

You know I have a pretty good spirit of my own.

Anne Mitchell had tried to put a turban on like mine as I wore it the week before at the concert but made wretched work of it.

It happened to become my odd face,

I believe.

At least Tilney told me so at the time.

He said every eye was upon me but he is the last man whose word I would take.

I wear nothing but purple now.

I know I look hideous in it but no matter.

It is your dear brother's favourite colour.

Lose no time,

My dearest,

Sweetest Catherine,

In writing to him and me,

Whoever I am,

Etc.

Such a strain of shallow artifice could not impose even upon Catherine.

Its inconsistencies,

Contradictions and falsehood struck her from the very first.

She was ashamed of Isabella and ashamed of ever having loved her.

Her professions of attachment were now as disgusting as her excuses were empty and her demands impudent.

Write to James on her behalf?

No,

James should never hear Isabella's name mentioned by her again.

On Henry's arrival from Woodstone,

Catherine made known to him and Eleanor their brother's safety,

Congratulating them with sincerity on it and reading aloud the most material passages of her letter with strong indignation.

When she'd finished she said,

So much for Isabella and for all our intimacy.

She must think me an idiot or she could not have written so.

But perhaps this has served to make her character known better to me than mine is to her.

I see what she has been about.

She is a vain coquette and her tricks have not answered.

I do not believe she had any regard either for James or for me and I wish I'd never known her.

It will soon be as if you never had,

Said Henry.

There is but one thing I cannot understand though.

I see she has had designs on Captain Tilney which have not succeeded but I do not understand what Captain Tilney has been about all this time.

Why should he pay her such attentions as to make her quarrel with my brother and then fly off himself?

I have very little to say for Frederick's motives,

Said Henry,

Such as I believe them to have been.

He has his vanities as well as Miss Thorpe and the chief difference is having a stronger head they have not yet injured himself.

If the effect of his behaviour does not justify him with you we'd better not seek after the cause.

Then you do not suppose he ever really cared about her?

I am persuaded he never did and only made believe to do so for mischief's sake.

Henry bowed his assent.

Well then,

I must say I do not like him at all.

Though it's turned out so well for us I do not like him at all.

As it happens there's no great harm done because I do not think Isabella has any heart to lose but suppose he'd made her very much in love with him?

But we must first suppose Isabella to have had a heart to lose,

Said Henry.

In that case she would have been a very different creature and she would have met with a very different treatment.

It's very right then you should stand by your brother and if you would stand by yours you would not be much distressed by the disappointment of Miss Thorpe but your mind is warped by an innate principle of general integrity and therefore not accessible to the cool reasonings of family,

Partiality or a desire of revenge.

Catherine was thus complimented out of further bitterness.

Frederick could not be unpardonably guilty while Henry made himself so agreeable.

She thus resolved on not answering Isabella's letter and tried to think no more of it.