No, not that Northanger Abbey, which I of course enjoy immensly. This one is written by Val McDermid, and is a modernised version of the Austen classic. We meet the same people, but this time set in modern Britain, most of the time in Edinburgh. There's Catherine Morland, the (stupid) heroine who gets invited to the Edinburgh Book Festival by some friends of the family to keep the wife company (how likely is that!!!). She falls in love with Henry Tilney who lives at Northanger Abbey (of course). And then there is the even more stupid (and also bad) Bella Thorpe who creates a bit of drama wherever she goes.
Now, it's been a while since I read the original, but I simply can't remember any of the characters being as stupid as these. The modernisation of the story simply doesn't work. The characters and their actions all seem very unlikely and more like cartoon figures. The book doesn't even work as an Austen parody, like some of the zombie-books, which are equally badly written, but cheesy and fun still. This lacks any of that and is just a waste of time.
McDermid, Val (2014): Northanger Abbey. London: The Borough Press. Kindle edition.
2 comments:
Takk for advarselen! Ikke at jeg hadde umiddelbare planer om å lese den da. Ga opp Val etter et par skrekkelig kjedelige kriminalromaner. Men ikke for det. Hun har skrevet mange gode også.
Sto med Joanna Trollopes versjon av Sense and Sensibility i handa, men turte ikke ta fatt på den i tilfelle den var like dårlig:)
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