Happy release day to Loving Miss Tilney, a canon-compliant variation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey that imagines how Eleanor Tilney found her well-deserved happy ever after.
Since Loving Miss Tilney has more original characters than characters from Northanger Abbey, I thought you should meet some of the ones who feature in Eleanor's story.
Our heroine is 22-year-old Eleanor Tilney. She is sensible and perceptive. She and her brother Henry befriended Catherine Morland in Bath, but when Loving Miss Tilney begins, her father has thrown out Catherine after he learned she isn't an heiress. Her mother died nine years ago and Eleanor feels lonely and helpless at the abbey. She’s been in love with family friend Philip Brampton since she was a teenager, but he has neither title nor fortune—so General Tilney will never let them marry.
Philip Brampton is the only son of a gentleman who left him little money, but he’s content with what he has. He's 27, shy around new people, and would happily spend his days solving complex math problems and sticking close to his tight circle. He’s loved Eleanor his whole life but knows her father wants her to marry money. Like most people, he’s intimidated by General Tilney. He’s friends with Henry Tilney, but Philip’s cousin Vaughan is his best friend.
Lord Vaughan has all the energy and outward charm that his cousin Philip lacks. He knows he has to marry eventually, but he's having an affair with a married woman and won't give her up. He drags Philip to a house party because he knows someone has get his shy cousin to socialize—plus he knows Eleanor is there. Philip has never confessed his feelings, but Vaughan knows Philip is in love with her.
Sir Charles Sudbury is a friend of the family who's hosting the house party. He’s ambitious, handsome, wealthy, and wants to enter parliament. He also might be a womanizer. But he’s titled and rich… exactly the kind of guy that General Tilney wants as a son-in-law. Eleanor sees his flaws, but since she can never marry Philip, maybe settling for Sir Charles would be worth it since it would get her away from the general?
General Tilney is just as awful in Loving Miss Tilney as he is in Northanger Abbey. We see more of his cold, harsh personality through Eleanor’s eyes and understand why she desperately wants some power over her own life. The general may not have murdered his wife, but he’s controlling, and his children are afraid of him. He’s a rich man, fixated on wealth, and not a man to be crossed.
She’s forbidden to wed a nobody. He’s nothing in society’s eyes. Will their desperate schemes backfire before they find a way to be together?
Northanger Abbey. Eleanor Tilney can’t bear her lonely life any longer. Distraught when her tyrannical father throws her friend out of the house because the girl lacks an inheritance, the long-suffering general’s daughter decides anything is better than a future all alone. So in a frantic bid for freedom, she puts aside her tender feelings for a man of no standing to pursue a wealthy husband.
Philip Brampton understands that fortune is against him. And he tries gallantly to bury his distress and support his lonely beloved, even after she starts pursuing an arrogant buffoon. But when he catches the fellow about to kiss her, their resulting harsh words cause a heartbreaking rift.
Stiffening her spine in a world that refuses to acknowledge her value, Eleanor attempts to navigate the impossible situation without quashing her desires. And though his shy nature abhors a scene, Philip braces himself for a confrontation with her cruel and abusive patriarch.
Do these childhood sweethearts have any hope of achieving lasting happiness?
Comments