Capitulos 8-11

James begs Isabella to boogie with him at the next ball. Isabella doesn’t want to agree because there is no dance partner for Catherine, trying to play hard to get, yet after some time she gives in. No que no? Catherine is bummed until she sees Mr. Tilney. He is with a mysterious woman, yet she dismisses any negative thoughts and deduces she must be his sister. Catherine seems very mature in not making negative assumptions. Henry informs her that he had to leave town, Catherine is just happy to see him. Henry invites her to dance but Catherine has to reject his invitation, since she accepted John’s invitation and is “engaged” for the night: comprometida to be John’s dancing partner. Bummer! John is nowhere and she is vestida y alborotada. After a couple of songs, Catherine is introduced to Henry’s sister. James and Isabella exceed the customary limit of dances together, dancing more than twice in a row; very scandalous at the time for dancing couples that aren’t engaged. Catherine sees that Mr. Tilney is dancing with another girl and is sad the rest of the night. She missed her opportunity to dance with Henry for not being confident and saying no directly to John. I hope she learns a leccion!

Trying to make amends al dia siguiente, Catherine gets ready to go to the “pump room” in the hopes that Ms. Tilney is there. John Thorpe arrives and reminds Catherine that she promised to go on a ride with him on his “hot new rode” of a carriage, as if this made him less of a douche. They ride in his carriage and James and Isabella follow behind on James’ carriage. John insinuates that Catherine will inherit the Allen’s fortune since the Allens have no heirs. Catherine denies this but he doesn’t listen and this makes Catherine more attractive for him. They were trying to reach a castle but had to return since it was getting late. When they return, Mrs. Allen informs Catherine that she took a walk with the Tilney’s and that she knows that their mother was a very wealthy woman who passed away some years ago. Catherine regrets missing such an opportunity to be with the Tilney’s. You win some and lose some. Catherine better revises her priorities and friendships, right? 

At the theaters, Isabella admires Catherine’s hairstyle and confesses that John is quite smitten with her, in fact, he now is “in love” with her. Que casualidad! Teresa en accion! Isabella then goes to tell Catherine, how she (Isabella) has so many things in common with James. How can you discover compatibilidad in a pair of days though? Catherine feels like a third-wheel when Isabella and James flirt all night. Luckily Miss Tilney appears and they both begin to talk like amigas del alma. Miss Tilney is able to tell that Catherine “loves” Mr. Tilney when Catherine is so upfront with her interest in knowing more about him. Later en la noche at the ball, Isabella dances with James and Catherine does her best to avoid John. She doesn’t want to ruin her luck again. Catherine and Mr. Tilney finally dance. They are later interrupted by John who claims that Catherine is “his partner” (as if!) until he realizes that Catherine is indeed Mr. Tilney’s partner and recognizes he is a good man and moves away. Can John be any worse? Just espera and read. Henry compares dancing to marriage (a seccion that’s a must to read with tons of wit and quimica between these two). Catherine expresses how much she loves Bath. Catherine notices Henry’s father, General Tilney, and is struck by his handsome appearance. Is she imagining Henry is to look like that at an older age? Catherine is invited by Miss Tilney to join her and Henry on a walk the next morning.

The next morning, once the rain is cleared, Catherine is worried the Tilneys went out of town and won’t be able to go with her. It’s past mid-day, the time that they had agreed to meet to walk. John, Isabella, and James show up and talk Catherine into going with them to ride to a Castle.  Isabella then goes all dramatica and Teresa on her, claiming Catherine prefers the Tilneys over the mischievous trio. Talk about peer pressure! Catherine accepts to go and they all do a 180 and are the happiest. On their way, Catherine sees the Tilneys on the way to her house and loses it! Catherine begs John to stop, but he goes faster. I can just imagine a kidnap wouldn’t be far from the verdad; John with an evil and mabre laugh, very Gotico. The day turns out sour when they don’t reach their destination and have to go back a casa. Catherine is annoyed and pissed! She didn’t get to see the Tilney’s nor reach their destination and see the castillo Gotico.

Capitulos 4-7

The next day, Catherine looks for Henry at another ball, but has no luck in finding him. Mrs. Allen, lamenting again on not knowing anyone at the ball (with the same speech, ya whiny), is then greeted by an old friend: Mrs. Thorpe. Now it seems that the ball has color again! Catherine is soon introduced to Mrs. Thorpe’s daughter, Isabella, a very “sensible” and guapa/beautiful. After talking, they find out that Isabella’s brother (John) and Catherine’s older brother (James) go to school at Oxford together and are good friends. Catherine admira a Isabella for her fashion, belleza and vast knowledge of Gothic novels. Isabella is a role-model for our heroine. Here we meet the Soraya Montenegro] and/or Teresa of the novela, Isabella. She seems to have it all, in the eyes of our heroina: she is beautiful, she is fashionable, she is sensible and she is the.

Catherine looks everywhere for Mr. Tilney (i.e. the theatre, the “pump room”, the parties she attends, etc.) but cannot find him. Heartbreaking! After a few days, Catherine and Isabella are now BFF’s, amigas del alma! They especially enjoy reading and discussing Gothic novels. Almost like a version of reality TV meets the suspenseful and dark and meets the drama of telenovelas. Austen then interrupts the story to defender and encourage the writing of novels and their heroinas as avid readers.

Isabella and Catherine meet at the “pump room”. The “pump room” is like the plaza, where everyone came to socialize and chismear. They begin by talking about The Mysteries of Udolpho. Isabella then discusses how far she’ll go for her friends and how she will never betray them. They move on to discussing the mysteries of love. Isabella then expresses disgust in 2 young men staring from across the room, yet when they all leave Catherine has to catch up to Isabella who is closely behind the same 2 men. Isabella, just like Teresa, liking the atencion masculina.

In following the 2 young men, the ladies encounter their brothers, just arriving at Bath. John praises his carriage and horse and engages Catherine in riding with him tomorrow. John asks Catherine to be his partner that night at the ball, and although Catherine likes the attention, Austen notes that she would not like him at all if her judgment were clouded by her need for attention. Young and naive. James then reveals that although he came to see Catherine, he is now also smitten by Isabella.

Capitulos 1-3

At the beginning of the novela, we are introduced to our unconventional heroine of just 17: Catherine. She is the daughter of a clergyman and lives with her many siblings in the country. Catherine is bonita/pretty enough, doesn’t possess any real talents (in musica or any of the other things that ladies would do at the time), and doesn’t really start her formal education until she is 15 (no interest before that, but to play with her siblings, she almost seemed a marimacha). Catherine points to us that she apenas had her “glow-up”. She is invited by her neighbors the Allens, to go to the city of Bath, which is where all the jovenes are going to find pareja. She’s excited, since there are no real suitors in the country. Now she will be out into society, something less of a party and religious like a quinceanera, but with more social events.

The “Maria’s”- although she was beautiful, she belonged to the lower, lower class, most unlikely to become a heroine. Money definitely helps her have her glow up! Like Catherine, the Marias learn to act like ladies and start to show an interest in their education. Jane the Virgin- Jane definitely has a glow up! Xio, has always been the more sexy one, and the one to get more of the male attention. There is a time when Jane is the one to start getting some male attention, especially after puberty, just like Catherine.

Our heroine prepares for her journey to Bath. After a few days of their arrival, the Allens and Catherine attend a ball. Catherine is excited at the prospect of making amistades by the coneccion of the Allens and being admired by men. Mrs. Allen sees no friends and Catherine is raving for the attention of the young men. She is disappointed for the majority of the night (and is happy when the people start leaving, hoping that with less chicas, there will be less competition!) until the end of the ball when 2 young men comment on how pretty she is. Catherine finalmente is able to leave, satisfied she had her share of attention masculina.

At her second ball, Catherine is introduced to Henry Tilney, a clergyman of 24. Henry jokes with Catherine about the social rules of dancing. They then talk about Catherine’s schedule and Henry teases Catherine about reading her journal and finding how she would describe him. Que escandalo! To Henry’s surprise, she has no journal, so they banter on letter writing versus journal writing. Does length matter?

Henry then surprises Mrs. Allen and Catherine at his knowledge of muslin and dresses, leaving them both impressed with his attention to detail, it takes un hombre valiente to openly talk about fashion. Although the sparks aren’t flying right away, there is quimica/chemistry between these two. Catherine dreams with Henry that night.

When Mr. Tilney and Catherine meet though, there is no big telenovela moment. Here we see playfulness and definitely some chemistry, but no fireworks in the sky or a wind blowing through their hair or having flower petals all around them. Nonetheless, there is chemistry there and Catherine dreams with him.

Hasta la proxima!