Northanger Abbey by Val McDermit

Just for fun, I read Val McDermid's recreation of Northanger Abbey, written as part of the 2014 Austen Project. I thought McDermid did a good job of updating the novel. I found the adaptation to be enjoyable and fun, a quick read.

Cat, as she preferred to be known--on the basis that nobody should emergy from their teens with the name their parents had chosen--had been disappointed by her life for as long as she could remember. Her family were, in her eyes, deeply average and desperately dull.~ from Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid

Cat (Catherine Morland) is a clergyman's daughter who has been homeschooled and overprotected. When her neighbors the Allens invite her to accompany them on their annual trip to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, it is the first time Cat has been away from home.

Mrs Allen runs into an old school friend, Maria Thorpe. The Thorpe children take Cat up, Bella instantly her becoming best friend and John her unwanted suitor. But Cat has also met young lawyer Henry Tilney and becomes besotted with him. And she admires Henry's sister Ellie and hopes to become closer friends with her. Cat is naive, natural and transparent, full of youthful idealism and joy in the discovery of the new and different, characteristics that make the Tilney siblings warm to her.

I thought McDermit did a good job updating the young people's culture. Bella and Cat are constantly Instant Messaging and the Tilneys play video games.

All of the classic Austen scenes are to be found including the discussion on novels as a vehicle for understanding human nature. Austen's original discussion of the word 'nice' (originally meaning fastidious) which became slang for agreeable becomes a discussion about the modern altering use of the word 'cool'. The discussion of the reading of novels and history has Cat admitting "I love novels that transport me into their world," mentioning her childhood love for Harry Potter and the Narnia books and noted her most recent reads were Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.

Cat finds that Northanger Abbey has mostly been modernized and redecorated in Scandinavian decor. But Cat's first view of the red sandstone building felt familiar, "similar to that of the parish church in Piddle Dummer, where her father held evening services every other Sunday." Then McDermid ads, "The only things missing were the parish noticeboard and the Oxfam posters." I loved these clever comments throughout the story.

Cat's reading obsession is vampire novels and it does seem unlikely a contemporary 17-year-old could actually consider vampires a reality. Henry Tilney, an insightful lawyer, too quickly zeros in on the motivation behind Cat's curiosity about his mother.

I enjoyed reading this reimagining of Austen's novel.