Northanger Abbey and Udolpho to be a Graphic Classic
Alert Janeite Heather L. wrote to tell us that Graphic Classics will be putting out a Gothic Classics issue in April 2007, including Catherine Morland’s favorite novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, and…
*drumroll*
…Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen!
We should probably be appalled but actually we find it way cool; we’re not sure if any of Jane Austen’s novels besides NA would work for this format, but the concept of NA as a graphic novel is really quite brilliant. We are further encouraged by the publisher’s understanding that NA is a parody of gothic novels. The artists who will be working on NA are Trina Robbins and Anne Timmons (the links on the main page don’t seem to work).
We hope that the publication of Udolpho in this format will encourage those who blanch at the size of the regular prose version of Udolpho to read that story, as we think it helps one to truly understand and appreciate Northanger Abbey.
Oh, and if the artists would like some input on Henry Tilney’s many-caped greatcoat, please feel free to contact the Editrix, who is after all the Self-Appointed World’s Leading Expert on Northanger Abbey, not to mention Da Man! Or at least check these out!
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Firstly, you might want to put all breakables into another room. And putting the cluebat well out of reach might be a good idea too. Done that? Good. Okay, then. Read this: http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Guardian/0,,1807518,00.html
It is about the re-release of Rebecca but it also briefly implies that all romances including Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre are paedophilic. *sigh*
In P&P2 (leaving the novel out of the discussion) we see a strong, mature woman – Elizabeth Bennet – usurping her mother’s role as partner, confidante, advisor to Mr. Bennet. The most powerful scenes of physical intimacy in the film are between those two. (Both involving kissing on the top of the head.) Is that a suggestion of pedophilia? No – just a healthy, maturing relationship between father & daughter.
Funny to read that Grauniad article today though – I just watched Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives. Woody Allen gets to kiss a woman (in a thunderstorm) who is supposedly 21 but looks fifteen- especially when she is wearing a school uniform. Also, there’s a scene where a woman spills a glass of wine and is told not to clean it up.
Am in about the 8th chapter of Mysteries of Udolpho & galumphing rapidly thru this page-turner & can see this book very easily as a graphic novel–nay, as a movie (with a script by Moi-self). The visual elements–as well as some f the aural ones–are so dominant as to make it a living picture book. A version of NA might also work well, especially if there are “thought bubbles” where we see Catherine’s imaginings of the Horrors of the Abbey.
What DOES lies behind the veil? Am dying to know. Don’t tell. My hair is standing on end, just like Henry’s.
What DOES lies behind the veil?
You won’t find out anytime soon, I’m afraid.