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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Teaser Tuesday: Northanger Abbey

I must confess: I nearly forgot today was Tuesday. As stated, I've been having a bit of a time with reading, despite the devouring of Julia Quinn's The Duke and I. Feeling like more romantic comedy, I decided to pick up Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, which I've been meaning to read for quite a while. I've made it through the first paragraph, but time is short these days.

What I have ended up with is an absolutely monstrous edition in which Penguin decided to collect all of Jane Austen's novels into one book. It is huge. It is ridiculous. I can't really take it anywhere -- it's too heavy to carry for long. I prefer a book I can tuck into my enormous purse and whip out at every available opportunity. But whatever.

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by Should Be Reading. It works as follows:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Open to a random page.
  • Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.
  • Be careful not to include spoilers!
  • Include the title and author.

From Northanger Abbey, taken from Jane Austen: The Complete Novels by Jane Austen (introduction by Karen Joy Fowler), p1018:

"The two youngest Miss Thorpes were by themselves in the parlour; and, on Anne's quitting it to call her sister, Catherine took the opportunity of asking the other for some particulars of their yesterday's party. Maria desired no greater pleasure than to speak of it; and Catherine immediately learnt that it had been altogether the most delightful scheme in the world; that nobody could imagine how charming it had been, and that it had been more delightful than any body could conceive."

6 comments:

Wendi said...

I love Jane Austen! I didn't know they had a complete book.

Here's my Teaser! ~ Wendi

Phyl said...

I saw your Twitter comment about the size of the book. It does get ridiculous, doesn't it? (One of my textbooks at university was the complete works of Shakespeare -- in one book. It's about 18 inches high and weighs a ton. You can't possibly read the thing, which really defeats the purpose. Who's going to read Shakespeare, standing at one of those big church podiums?? Heh.)

Meanwhile, my own teaser is at Bookishgal.

Mari - Escape In A Book said...

I have to read Jane Austens books soon! I'm ashamed to say that I have never read any of her books.

Unknown said...

Wendi B. - they certainly do! But I wouldn't recommend it, except perhaps as a doorstop. It's really too big for comfortable reading anywhere but at a table.

Phyl - I cannot imagine a complete works of Shakespeare. That's insane. But the image of some priest reading Hamlet to the flock is an awesome one, thanks!

Ladybug - I just read my first Jane Austen last year. I'd tried to read Sense and Sensibility years ago and it really put me off. Later I was told that it's probably her least accessible book -- so don't start there! I really, really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice but this is the first time I've picked up anything else.

Harvee said...

Nice tease. When books were books....:)

Here's mine: http://bookbirddog.blogspot.com/2009/06/teaser-tuesday-book-review.html

Unknown said...

It's true! Northanger Abbey does have one of my favourite quotes about novel reading in it. Actually, there are several good passages that have to do with reading.

I've picked up a single-novel version now, in an attempt to make it easier to read. We'll see how that goes.