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landofnowhereI was skimming an article on the gothic novels referenced in Northanger Abbey, which mentions the reading list that Isabella gives Catherine for their book club: “I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.”
...and suddently I went, what other book have I read which includes lists of books recommended to the protagonist by a friend? And is also about a young woman coming of age and learning to distinguish between truth and sentimental drivel, with some guidance from an older man who has been living under the shadow of an abusive family?
Which is to say, Fire and Hemlock is totally riffing on Northanger Abbey! Only it's genre, so instead of Catherine learning to outgrow her adolescent fantasies, Polly gets to learn how to let fantasy and reality coexist, to see No Where and Now Here at the same time, and that allows her to be more actively heroic in the final act.
(Note also the first sentence of Northanger Abbey: "No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.", though as Polly notes being a heroine is culturally not the same thing.)
...and suddently I went, what other book have I read which includes lists of books recommended to the protagonist by a friend? And is also about a young woman coming of age and learning to distinguish between truth and sentimental drivel, with some guidance from an older man who has been living under the shadow of an abusive family?
Which is to say, Fire and Hemlock is totally riffing on Northanger Abbey! Only it's genre, so instead of Catherine learning to outgrow her adolescent fantasies, Polly gets to learn how to let fantasy and reality coexist, to see No Where and Now Here at the same time, and that allows her to be more actively heroic in the final act.
(Note also the first sentence of Northanger Abbey: "No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.", though as Polly notes being a heroine is culturally not the same thing.)
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Date: 25 Sep 2021 08:44 (UTC)This is a fascinating idea! (Oh dear, am I going to have to go read Northanger Abbey now?) Would love to hear more. (Also my immediate reaction is that if Polly's name is playing with "poly-," "Morland" also seems like a promising name for symbolism.)
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Date: 25 Sep 2021 15:50 (UTC)The first half is a social comedy: country girl Catherine arrives in Bath, makes friends, and talks to them about books. Friends include: Henry Tilney, who is either the most desirable love interest in Austen or annoyingly sarcastic and superior, YMMV; his sister Eleanor; Isabella Thorpe, who is generally a flirt and a Bad Influence, partly for liking sensational novels, but mostly for trying to set Catherine up with her brother John, who is awful in a Seb Leroy sort of way.
The second half is a parody of a gothic novel set at the Tilneys' mansion, the titular Northanger Abbey, controlled by the tyrannical General Tilney. Catherine's gothic-novel fueled imagination causes her to believe that she is somewhere much more like Hunsdon House than she is. When she expresses this to Henry he gives her a verbal smackdown and she fears she has lost his regard, but of course all ends happily, and Henry concedes that his father is at least a "metaphorical vampire".
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Date: 25 Sep 2021 13:04 (UTC)"Among others" by Jo Walton seemed like a booklist to me.
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Date: 25 Sep 2021 15:14 (UTC)Among Others absolutely is a booklist! And is doing some of the same things as Fire and Hemlock, thuogh also other things.
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Date: 25 Sep 2021 15:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 Oct 2021 19:59 (UTC)