Lauren McDonald, Heather Uhlman, Sam Hooper
ENGL 4505
Dr. Eberle
4/13/15
Northanger Abbey Fanfiction Assignment
We didn’t find too much trouble finding Northanger Abbey fanfiction, but what we did
discover were a lot of modern adaptation. Modern adaptation is a way of bridging a past work
with future issues/sensibilities and that’s what two out of three of our final considerations strived
to do. One set in a high school, and the other on the road. They both attempted to make of
Catherine this outsider character; Cat didn’t fit in with the prep school kids in The Hand that
Feeds, and Kate was a slob who was “relishing her last moments of solitude” when she is sent
off on an adventure to a new place. Catherine as outsider was a cool idea that fit in with her
feelings in the original novel as a newcomer to Bath, but we also saw these changes as merely
parallels trying to create a relatability for a more modern audience. These were also too long,
both a multi-chapter experience that would be too much work for our assignment.
We settled on A Path with Primrose Strewn because it sought to grab something new
from the older text. As a continuance story after Catherine and Henry have married and had kids,
it shows a more integrated Catherine trying to balance the need for social awareness with the
need to allow her children to be raised with the same imagination that led her (if indirectly) to
have suspicions about the righteousness of General Tilney in the original text. It was also very
well-written and very funny and very cute.
Works Considered
Ancestor, ElvishKiwis Venerated. “Affection and Affectation.” FanFiction. 9 Feb 2013. Web. 31
Mar 2015. <https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8992215/1/Affection-and-Affectation>
Austen, Feign. “Northanger Shabby.” FanFiction. 8 Aug 2011. Web. 31 Mar 2015.
<https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7264488/1/Northanger-Shabby>
Kildow, Kaydee. “Henry Tilney’s Heroine: A Northanger Abbey Vignette.” For the Love of
Austen. 2 Aug 2011. Web. 31 Mar 2015.
<http://fortheloveofausten.blogspot.com/2011/08/henry-tilneys-heroinenorthanger-abbey.html>
lilkawa. “It Happened In Bath.” FanFiction. 19 June 2014. Web. 31 Mar 2015.
<https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10466256/1/It-Happened-In-Bath>
loathlylady. “A Path with Primrose Strewn.” Archive of Our Own. Organization for
Transformative Works. 21 Dec 2010. Web. 31 Mar 2015.
<http://archiveofourown.org/works/142386>
orchidvines. “The Hand That Feeds.” FanFiction. 10 June 2013. Web. 31 Mar 2015.
<https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9377608/1/The-Hand-That-Feeds>
smaragdbird. “Filial disobeddiance and parental tyranny.” FanFiction. 6 Jan 2010. Web. 31
Mar 2015. <https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5645986/1/Filial-disobeddiance-andparental- tyranny>