Category Archives: Heroines

“There was not one lord in the neighborhood; no — not even a baronet. There was not one family among their acquaintance who had reared and supported a boy accidentally found at their door — not one young man whose origin was unknown. Her father had no ward, and the squire of the parish no children.

But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.”

Of Catherine Morland, our would-be heroine
Northanger Abbey, volume 1, chapter 1

“And now I may dismiss my heroine to the sleepless couch, which is the true heroine’s portion; to a pillow strewed with thorns and wet with tears. And lucky may she think herself, if she get another good night’s rest in the course of the next three months.”

Catherine is worried about having missed the Tilneys when they called for her for their scheduled walk that morning. It rained, they were late, she was talked into going on a ride with the Thorpes and her brother instead, then sees them as she is leaving town.
Northanger Abbey, volume 1, chapter 11

Oh, the sleepless nights of being young and in love…

I’ll be posting here over the weekend as well, in honor of The Complete Jane Austen.