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Title:
Catharine
Series: ----------
Author:
Jane Austen
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Romance
Pages: 62
Words:
17K
Publish: 1793
This is another unfinished novel that Austen began as a younger person and thus it is classed with her juvenilia works.
I didn’t hate it despite the lower rating, but the main reason it is getting this lower rating is because the characters just didn’t feel like characters that Jane Austen would create later in her life. Some of the “ideas” were there, just like the names of familiar characters were in A Collection of Letters, but the heart and soul were totally absent. That made this hard to power through.
I do not regret reading these bits and bobs, because I am a fan of Austen’s and I am also a completionist. But I can’t say that I am having a wonderful time. It’s almost like being back in school again, sigh.
★★✬☆☆
From Wikipedia
Catharine (Kitty) Percival (the name is sometimes given as Peterson) is an orphan, ward of her aunt, Mrs. Percival, who is strict with her. Kitty has lost her dear friends, Cecilia and Mary Wynne, whose clergyman father's death scattered the family; Cecilia Wynne was sent to India to be married to a much older man she dislikes, and Mary is serving as a companion in the household of a distant relative, Lady Halifax, dependent on that family for even the clothes on her back. Together Kitty, Cecilia, and Mary had planted a bower in Mrs. Percival’s garden, which, now grown to maturity, is Kitty’s haven and chief comfort.
Mrs. Percival goes to great lengths to prevent Kitty from meeting possibly unsuitable young men. Kitty is allowed to socialize only with Mr. and Mrs. Dudley and their daughter, an arrogant and quarrelsome family. Mrs. Percival even refuses visits from the Stanleys, relatives of Mrs. Percival and Catharine, who are a wealthy family with political and social influence, because they have a son, Edward, of marriageable age.
However, Edward has now moved to France, and the Stanleys come to visit. Kitty excitedly anticipates their arrival. She is disappointed to find that their daughter, Camilla, has little in common with her. While Camilla's "ideas where towards the Eleagance of the appearance", she seemed to be "devoid of taste or judgment" (p. 169). Camilla "professed a love of books without reading, was lively without wit, and generally good humoured without merit" (p. 169). Kitty wants to discuss things like books and politics, but Camilla leads the conversation back to subjects Kitty views as frivolous, such as fashion and social life. Camilla is acquainted with the Halifaxes, and she and Kitty disagree over the Halifaxes and the Wynne sisters. Camilla thinks that the sisters are fortunate, while Kitty views their situation as tragic and thinks that the Wynnes have been ill-treated by their benefactors.
Kitty concludes that she and Camilla will not come to an agreement, and escapes to her bower. Camilla later comes to the bower, excited, to tell Kitty that they have all been invited to the Dudleys’ ball the next evening. In the morning, Kitty wakes up with a violent toothache that prevents her from attending the ball. Camilla, her parents, and Mrs. Percival decide to attend the ball without her.
Mrs. Stanley and Mrs. Percival discuss the friendship between Camilla and Kitty. Mrs. Percival see their relationship as detrimental and tells Mrs. Stanley that she, herself, did not have such a companion. Mrs. Percival quips that perhaps it would have changed her for the better, and talks about the friend of her own girlhood, with whom she still keeps acquaintance.
Edward Stanley turns up at the Percivals’ home, having returned to England unexpectedly, and convinces Kitty to go with him to the ball after all. Mrs. Percival is not pleased. In the following days, Edward flirts with Kitty, and it becomes apparent that he has much more in common with her than Camilla does. He makes a point of kissing her hand when Mrs. Percival is approaching and can witness it. Kitty begins to fall in love with Edward. Her aunt doesn't approve of him and chastises Kitty for scandalous behavior.
Mr. Stanley is also displeased by Edward’s flirting with Kitty, and sends him back to the Continent. Kitty is hurt by his abrupt departure, but Camilla tells her that he was sorry to leave, obviously because he is in love with Kitty. Kitty is in a "state of satisfaction."
The book was never completed, so we do not know where the story would have gone next.
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