Northanger Abbey, chapter 7: Johnny-Come-Lately (Preferably Not At All)
There are details about Austen novels that drive me to distraction. Whenever I find myself agreeing with Emma Woodhouse. Whether or not Captain Harville and Anne would have made a good couple. And one detail about Northanger Abbey that drives me batty is just this one thing ... Why is John Thorpe? Everything about this guy is a mess. He arrives on the scene in a fury, cutting off Catherine and Isabella with his stampeding gig, and then stubbornly contradicts his companion (Catherine’s brother—hi, James!) in judging the distance they have traveled. The narrator’s description doesn’t save his image: John possesses “a plain face and ungraceful form” and doesn’t know how to dress himself. He immediately attaches himself to Catherine without so much as a proper introduction. He invites her to ride in his gig (an inappropriate invitation), offers “a short decisive sentence of praise or condemnation on the face of every woman they met,” and calls his sisters ugly to their faces. He also tal...
