Saturday 14 May 2011

My Love; Mr Henry Tilney

Henry Tilney is my ultimate hero, and because I know all my readers are so kind and will forgive me for saying this but I love him even more than Mr Darcy *gasps*! ....Okay, so if your not too offended to continue reading :) I would love to tell you all who this Henry Tilney is (if you don't already know) and why I love him so much!

Henry is the hero of Jane Austen's wonderful novel Northanger Abbey and the romantic interest of Catherine Morland. He is an exceedingly witty, integellent and charming clergyman in his mid 20's and the younger son of the wealthy General Tilney. Sometimes I find it a little hard to acknowledge exactly what it is about Henry that I like so much but I have discovered that it really is his enitre character (I know that sounds vague). I find Henry to be very mysterious, a lot of the time its hard to know what he truly thinks because often what he says is not at all what he means. Henry uses a lot of irony coupled with sarcasm this along with his forementioned wit and intellegence makes great reading! He also has a very sensitive nature and cares very deeply for his sister, Eleanor and also for Catherine. Of course with all this said Henry is not perfect, he is seems to have an opinion on everything and is always considered to be right- something that he delights in. He also has somewhat of an ego which is perhaps quite flattered at times with Catherine's adoration.

One of my favourite quotes from Henry is:

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid"



I am not normally the type of person to rate humour as a quality I like in a hero, but Henry's is so perfect. So just to finish off,  here is a little excerpt of one of my favourite conversations between Henry and Catherine from the novel.

"Now I must give one smirk, and then we may be rational again." Catherine turned away her head, not knowing whether she might venture to laugh.
"I see what you think of me," said he gravely - "I shall make but a poor figure in your journal tomorrow."


My journal!"


Yes, I know exactly what you will say: Friday, went to the Lower Rooms; wore my sprigged muslin robe with blue trimmings - plain black shoes - appeared to much advantage; but was strangely harassed by a queer, half-witted man, who would make me dance with him, and distressed me by his nonsense."


Indeed I shall say no such thing."


Shall I tell you what you ought to say?"


If you please."


I danced with a very agreeable young man, introduced by Mr. King; had a great deal of conversation with him -- seems a most extraordinary genius -- hope I may know more of him. That, madam, is what I wish you to say."



Thanks for reading, I will be continuing with the 'villains we sympathise with' posts shortly :)

What about you, who is your hero? Why?  

Much Love,

Tristans_Isolde xx

*UPDATE (14/05/11):
As you are most likely already aware Blogger has had some issues the past couple of days, the result for this blog was some posts being temporarily taken off. Although the posts were restored the comments were not :) so if you posted a comment on this post I have re-posted it from the notification email I received :)

7 comments:

Southern Belle said...

All right. I am going to have to read it! :) He sounds amazing. *sigh*

Mel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mel said...

Southern Belle,

He really is amazing! It is definitely worth the read :)

Jujube said...

I have neither read nor watched Northanger Abbey so I don't really know anything about Henry Tilney. But I hope I can do both soon. Henry Tilney sounds like an interesting character.

Mel said...

Jemimah,
He really is a great character...actually a lot of my favourite characters come from this novel. Catherine Morland who is the heroine is a really cute and equally interesting character too.
Thanks for commenting :)

Miss Laurie of Old-Fashioned Charm said...

This post was heavenly! I'm not sure why I haven't commented on it before!

Henry Tilney is my favorite Jane Austen hero as well, but Mr. Knightley is a very close second. I received an audio book of Northanger Abbey for my 16th birthday and listening to it over and over is one delight that helped me get through a hard time in my life. Jane Austen became my dear friend and her characters came to life as I listened. I identified so much with Catherine (even though I've never been a tomboy), admired Eleanor, laughed at John & Isabella, and fell in love with Mr. Henry Tilney. Henry's wit, sarcasm and bright thinking mind actually reminds me a lot of my father and that's perhaps why I understand Henry so well. Henry's mind is bright and active, he enjoys learning and knowing and discussing current affairs (politics, art, travel), reading literature (even popular fiction like 'Udolpho'), music & dancing are also of interest to him. He loves his sister and takes interest in her pastimes, she trusts his taste in muslin and they talk freely together. Yet Henry is all man, he enjoys hunting, riding horses, driving a carriage and playing with his dogs. He's a scholar who sometimes gets so caught up in his sermon preparations that he leaves an untidy study. He has a great sense of humor which is sarcastic and at the expense of foolish people sometimes. Yet he means well and is a good judge of character. He always acts rightly which tells me his faith is important to him and guides him. He's also quite handsome (Jane Austen says so!) and it's clear he's not a fan of silly giggly women. When he meets Catherine who is so pure and sweet he is taken aback by her being so honest and artless. He soon learns that having her love is something to prize. I think that Henry & Catherine Tilney will do very well, have many children and raise them in a home filled with love, wisdom and humor! Henry Tilney, a true hero!

Well, sorry this is so long. When I get started on Henry I just can't stop talking about his qualities! Thanks for this post!

~Miss Laurie
Old-Fashioned Charm

Melody said...

I love Mr. Tilney! I was biased before I read NA because of his 'novels' quote! (It has to be my favorite quote of all time!!)

I probably still like Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightley better, though, the former my orignal favorite hero; but since the two have had some contests going on in my head...

I have to read P&P again. haha

Henry has some of the best quotes! And he's funny...I like funny...although too much teasing does annoy me, if it's a certain kind. I don't think he *quite* has that kind, but I think he could he's just too nice to use it. =D Like the crack about 'nice', seemed like it could tend to go a little to the critical side, if he'd let it. :P

But yeah, I like him. <3

(Hope you had fun with getting a comment on an old post! haha!)